Mathura ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a city in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately 50 km north of Agra, and 145 km south-east of Delhi; about 11 kilometers from the town of Vrindavan and 22 kilometers from Govardhan. It is the administrative centre of Mathura District of Uttar Pradesh. During the ancient period, Mathura was an economic hub, located at the junction of important caravan routes. Today, it is a fast expanding city with over 2.5 million residents.

Mathura is the birthplace of Lord Krishna at the centre of Braj or Brij-bhoomi, called Shri Krishna Janma-Bhoomi, literally: 'Lord Krishna's birth place'. The Keshav Dev Temple was built in ancient times on the site of Krishna's legendary birthplace (an underground prison). According to the Mahabharata and Bhagavata Purana epics, Mathura was the capital of the Surasena Kingdom, ruled by Kansa the maternal uncle of Shri Krishna.

Mathura has an ancient history. According to the Archeological Survey of India plaque at the Mathura Museum, the city is mentioned in the oldest Indian epic, the Ramayana. In the epic, the Ikshwaku prince Shatrughna slays a demon called Lavanasura and claims the land. Afterwards, the place came to be known as Madhuvan as it was thickly wooded, then Madhupura and later Mathura. The demon that Shatrughan killed in Ramayana, Lavanasura was the progeny of a devout king Madhu who gets Lord Shiva's Trident in a boon in the Puranas. The Puranas ascribe the founding of the city to Ayu, the son of Pururavas and the celestial nymph Urvashi. The city might also have got its name from a famous Yadav king Madhu who reigned around 1,600 BCE.^{[citation needed]}

Dr. Vinod K. Agarwal is an Indian-American businessman and scientist. He was a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada from 1978 to 1992. He then founded LogicVision, which he took public in October, 2001, as the first technology IPO following the terrorist attacks earlier that year. Agarwal left LogicVision in 2005 to start SemIndia, a semiconductor company based in India.

Born in Mathura, India, Agarwal received his undergraduate education at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, followed by an M.S. from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University.

Upon completing his Ph.D., Dr. Agarwal joined the faculty of the Computer Science Department at the McGill University in Montreal. He stayed on the faculty for 16 years, eventually retiring as head of the Department of Electrical Engineering.

Dr. Agarwal has been recognized for his contributions to the field by being named Silicon India's 2002 Enterpreneur of the year, as well as being profiled in Fortune magazine and the Wharton Global Business Forum among other publications and conferences. He is also recognized on the List of Notable BITS alumni.