Louis Charles Karpinski (1878 –1956) was an American mathematician born in Rochester, New York.  Karpinski received a Teacher’s Diploma from Oswego State Normal School in 1897.  In 1898, he went to Kentucky to teach at the normal department of Berea College.  He would leave Berea in 1899 to enter Cornell University and would go on to receive his Dr. Phil. Nat. from the American College of the Kaiser Wilhelms-Universitat zu Strassburg in 1903.   He also studied (1909–1910) at Columbia, where he was a fellow and a university extension lecturer. In 1919, he accepted a position at the University of Michigan and became full professor of mathematics.

Dr. Karpinski devoted his attention chiefly to the history and pedagogy of mathematics and was also an authority on the history of both science and cartography.  He served as the president of the History of Science Society from 1943-44.