James Joseph Sylvester (1814 - 1897): "An outsider breaking into the established societal norms‪"‬ Being a Professional Mathematician

Karen Parshall talks about the nineteenth-century mathematician James Joseph Sylvester. We learn about:

Sylvester's family background and Jewish heritage (at time 0:27)
being a Jew in Victorian Britain (1:21)
his mathematical education (1:57)
further impact of his Jewishness (2:37)
a Jew at Cambridge (3:13)
his first publications (4:24)
progressing his career, and facing obstacles (5:25)
end of his first stay in the USA (6:51)
back in London: a job as actuary, and research progress (7:21)
"creating his own mathematical community" (8:41)
his friendship with Cayley (8:58)
Invariant Theory (9:41)
taking a degree in law (10:19)
back to Academia as Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich (10:41)
defining the "professional mathematician" (11:11)
Sylvester at Woolwich (11:42)
enforced retirement, establishing an international reputation (12:30)
flourishing back in America as a research professor (13:37)
return to England and the Savilian Chair at Oxford (15:46)

More information, worksheets and other resources for the undergraduate mathematics curriculum: www.beingamathematician.org