Dr. Craig′s professional training is a conflation of diverse natural and social sciences. He received a B.A. cum laude in geology with minors in mathematics, chemistry, zoology and history from the University of Minnesota in June 1966. Although accepted into the University of Minnesota′s Medical School, Craig chose instead to accept a five-year NDEA Fellowship in Geological Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. While at Caltech he also began studying Russian language and became very interested in interdisciplinary environmental and social sciences and their roles in alternative approaches to economic-ecologic development. After receiving his M.S. degree in geological sciences in June 1968, he resigned his fellowship at Caltech and was accepted into the doctoral program in geography at U.C. Berkeley where focused his studies on environmental problems in the former Soviet Union, especially water pollution problems. In 1972 Craig accepted a position in the Department of Geography at the Ohio State University, returning to U.C. Berkeley in the summer 1973 to complete his PhD dissertation. In September 1977, he accepted an offer to join the faculty of the Department of Geography at the University of Washington. Ever since 1968 he has primarily focused on interdisciplinary research and field experience in the former Soviet Union dealing with urban, population, natural resource management, energy, and environmental pollution problems. While serving as Co-Director and then Director of the Program on the Environment at the University of Washington (2000-2004) Craig was also a Co-Pi on the U.W. five-year NSF IGERT grant in Urban Ecology. He has been involved in interdisciplinary environmental teaching and research for over 40 years and since 1989 has made ever-increasing use of experiential learning and small group processes in his classes, including his classes on mathematical modeling of human-economic-ecological interactions.

Research interests of Craig ZumBrunnen focuses on natural resource management and conservation, Environmental quality problems, Physical geography, Former soviet union, Modeling of human impact in natural systems and Issues of energy use and climate change.