James Joseph

Sylvester

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AMES JOSEPH SYLVESTER, founder of the American Journal of Mathematics, was born in London. Although little is known of his early life, by the age of 14 he was studying at the University of London under Augustus DeMorgan, a well-known English mathematician. At 15, Sylvester entered the Royal Institute at Liverpool, where he won several prizes in mathematics.

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After receiving his degree from Trinity College in 1837, Sylvester embarked on a series of careers in England and the United States. These included a professorship at the University of Virginia, an actuarial position in England, enrollment at a law school (with subsequent work as a lawyer), a professorship at a military academy, a professorship of mathematics at Johns Hopkins University, and finally a professorship of mathematics at Oxford University, a position he held until his death in 1897.

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In 1850 Sylvester met Arthur Cayley and the two began a life-long friendship. Sylvester attributed his “restoration to the enjoyment of mathematical life” to this meeting, and during the next half century he contributed much to the theory of determinants. His mathematical papers tended to be emotional discourses rather than systematic developments of theory, and he often claimed results to be “self-evident.” Although his exuberance occasionally led to incorrect conjectures, Sylvester’s intuition was usually right, probably because, as he said, “I really love my subject.”