James Joseph Sylvester was an English mathematician. He made fundamental contributions to matrix theory, invariant theory, number theory, partition theory, and combinatorics. He played a leadership role in American mathematics in the later half of the 19th century as a professor at the Johns Hopkins University and as founder of the American Journal of Mathematics. At his death, he was a professor at Oxford University.

Johns Hopkins University is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins was the first American university based on the European research institution model. The university also has graduate campuses in Italy, China, and Washington, D.C.