The Carol Karp Award is made on the basis of outstanding performance in the field of logic.
The award was established in memory of Carol Karp (1926-1972), a Maryland mathematics professor and logician who had a great influence on the development of Logic in the Mathematics Department. The award was originally funded by a number of people, including professors in the mathematics and philosophy departments. An in memoriam volume in her honor (Spring Lecture Notes in Mathematics Vol. 492, ed. D.W.Kueker, 1975) contains more information on her life and contributions.
About Carol Karp
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. 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 (then called Michigan State College), where she earned a master's degree in 1950.
In 1951 she married Arthur Karp and took his last name. She continued her graduate study in mathematics while traveling to California and Japan with her husband, who worked in the US Navy. She completed her Ph.D. in 1959 at the University of Southern California under the supervision of Leon Henkin. Her dissertation, in formal language theory and infinitary logic, was Languages with Expressions of Infinite Length; she later published it as a book with the same title (North–Holland Publishing, 1964).
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". In 1969 she was diagnosed with breast cancer but remained active until her death three years later.
Award Recipients
- 2025 Adam Melrod
- 2018 Aaron George
- 2004 Meghan Gwyer
- 2003 Lawrence D'Anna
- 2002 Jessica Metcalf-Burton
- 1999 Daniel Schick and David Spivak
- 1995 (Geoffrey) Chris Hruska
- 1992 Fawzi P. Emad
- 1988 Terri G. Marquiss
- 1987 Paul Robert Harris
- 1985 Elbert Porter
- 1984 Jonathan A. Epstein
- 1983 Selman P. Hershfield
- 1982 Jordana Enig
- 1981 Mary Flather
- 1980 Joyce N. Migdall
- 1978 Lonny Richard Gorban and Robert Karl Schwenk