Carol Karp, née Carol Ruth Vander Velde, was an American mathematician of Dutch ancestry, best known for her work on infinitary logic.
Education
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 (then called Michigan State College).
Career
She also played viola in an all-women orchestra. Carol Karp earned a Doctor of Philosophy 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.