Carol Karp, born Carol Ruth Vander Velde (10 August 1926 in Forest Grove, Ottawa County, Michigan – 20 August 1972 in Maryland), was an American mathematician of Dutch ancestry, best known for her work on infinitary logic.
[1][2][3] Born in Michigan to a farming supply store manager and a housewife, Carol and her siblings graduated from high school in Ohio.
She continued her graduate study in mathematics while traveling to California and Japan with her husband, who worked in the US Navy.
[5] Even before completing her doctorate, Karp had taken a faculty position in 1958 at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she was promoted to full professor after only seven years and became a "leader in the developing theory of infinitary logic".
[3] In 1969 she was diagnosed with breast cancer but remained active until her death three years later.