Karen Petrie

Karen Petrie is a British computer scientist specialising in the area of constraints programming. She was named young IT practitioner of the year by the British Computer Society (BCS)^[1] in 2004, for work she carried out whilst on placement at NASA. She is currently a professor in the School of Science and Engineering at the University of Dundee.^[2]

Karen Elizabeth Jefferson Petrie
Born	(1980-12-02)December 2, 1980
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of St Andrews, University of Huddersfield, University of Oxford
Scientific career
Fields	Computer science
Institutions	University of Dundee
Thesis	Constraint Programming, Search and Symmetry  (2005)
Doctoral advisor	Barbara Smith

She is a women in computing activist, who served as chair of BCSWomen from 2008 to 2011, and organised many events for women in computing during this period.^[3]

Petrie is responsible for an argument about sexist behaviour in gender-imbalanced groups called "The Petrie Multiplier",^[4] which states that with a gender ratio of 1:r, women will receive r² times as many sexist remarks as men. Proving tight upper and lower bounds remains an open question.