Carol Karp

Who was Carol Karp?

Carol Karp, née Carol Ruth Vander Velde, was an American mathematician of Dutch ancestry, best known for her work on infinitary logic. She also played viola in an all-women orchestra.

Born in Michigan to a farming supply store manager and a housewife, Carol and her siblings graduated from high school in Ohio. After that, she graduated from Manchester University, Indiana and went back to Michigan to study at Michigan State University. In 1951 she married Arthur Karp and took his last name. Carol Karp earned a Ph.D. in California while teaching in New Mexico. At the University of Maryland she helped enlarge the mathematical logic department in professors and graduate students, and obtained a National Science Foundation grant for undergraduate research. In 1969 she was diagnosed with breast cancer but remained active until her death three years later.

The Karp Prize of the Association for Symbolic Logic is named in her honor. The cash prize was established in 1973 and is awarded every five years for a "connected body of research, most of which has been completed in the time since the previous prize was awarded."