| Karen Elizabeth Jefferson Petrie | |
| Birth Date: | 2 December 1980 |
| Nationality: | British |
| Fields: | Computer science |
| Alma Mater: | University of St Andrews, University of Huddersfield, University of Oxford |
| Thesis Title: | Constraint Programming, Search and Symmetry |
| Thesis Year: | 2005 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Barbara Smith |
| Spouses: | )--> |
| Partners: | )--> |
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]
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.