![]() ![]() His work was chiefly in the domain of analysis rather than in that of geometry. ![]() His death three years later followed an apoplectic stroke. In December 1883 he resigned his chair to accept election as Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, in which position he continued for the remainder of his life, although failing health caused him to retire from teaching in 1894. The oldest member of the faculty, he brought to the new institution not only his reputation and ability as one of the greatest mathematicians of his time, but an infectious eagerness for intellectual endeavor which had a stimulating effect upon the whole university.įrom the foundation of the American Journal of Mathematics by the University in 1878 until May 1884 he was its editor, giving it at once a distinguished place among the learned journals of the world. In 1876, upon the recommendation of Joseph Henry and Benjamin Peirce, he was called to the newly opened Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In 1855 Sylvester was appointed professor of mathematics in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, where he taught until he was retired in July 1870. Going first to Washington and then to New York, where he lived with his eldest brother, he endeavored unsuccessfully to get appointments at Columbia and at Harvard. On February 24, 1842, after about three months of service, he resigned his professorship because of the refusal of the faculty to expel a student with whom he had had difficulty (Bruce, post, III, 73-76). Sensitive, race-conscious, and unable to control his temper, he was ill-fitted to meet the provincial prejudice of some of his students and to handle disciplinary problems. In 1837 James Sylvester succeeded William Ritchie as professor of natural philosophy at University College, London, where he taught for four years. (age 82) London, England, United Kingdom, Great Britain ![]()
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