Jim Simons

For other people named James Simons, see James Simons (disambiguation).

James Simons
Simons in 2007
Born(1938-04-25)April 25, 1938
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedMay 10, 2024(2024-05-10) (aged 86)
New York City, U.S.
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (BS)
University of California, Berkeley (MS, PhD)
Occupation(s)Hedge fund manager, investor, mathematician, philanthropist
Known forFounding and managing Renaissance Technologies
Simons formula
Chern–Simons form
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1959; div. 1974)​
Marilyn Hawrys
​
(m. 1977)​
[1]
Children5, including Nat[2]
AwardsOswald Veblen Prize (1976)[3]
Scientific career
FieldsDifferential geometry, cryptography, quantitative financial analysis
ThesisOn the Transitivity of Holonomy Systems (1962)
Doctoral advisorBertram Kostant
Doctoral studentsJeff Cheeger

James Harris Simons (April 25, 1938 – May 10, 2024) was an American hedge fund manager, investor, mathematician, and philanthropist.[4] At the time of his death, Simons' net worth was estimated to be $31.4 billion, making him the 55th-richest person in the world.[4] He was the founder of Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund based in East Setauket, New York. He and his fund are known to be quantitative investors, using mathematical models and algorithms to make investment gains from market inefficiencies. Due to the long-term aggregate investment returns of Renaissance and its Medallion Fund, Simons was described as the "greatest investor on Wall Street," and more specifically "the most successful hedge fund manager of all time".[5][6][7]

Simons was known for his studies on pattern recognition.[8] He developed the Chern–Simons form (with Shiing-Shen Chern), and contributed to the development of string theory by providing a theoretical framework to combine geometry and topology with quantum field theory.[9]

In 1994, Simons and his wife, Marilyn, founded the Simons Foundation to support research in mathematics and fundamental sciences. The foundation is the top benefactor of Stony Brook University, Marilyn's alma mater, and is a major contributor to his alma maters, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. Simons was a member of the boards of the Stony Brook Foundation, the MIT Corporation, and the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute in Berkeley, as well as chair of boards of Math for America, the Simons Foundation, and Renaissance Technologies.[10][11] In 2023, the Simons Foundation gave $500 million to Stony Brook University, the second-largest donation to a public university in American history.[12] In 2016, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid 6618 Jimsimons, which Clyde Tombaugh discovered in 1936, after Simons in honor of his contributions to mathematics and philanthropy.[13]

  1. ^ Coy, Peter (April 11, 2019). "Meet Marilyn Simons, the Bricklayer's Daughter Who Became a Philanthropist". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on May 20, 2020.
  2. ^ Teitelbaum, Richard (January 2008). "The Code Breaker". Bloomberg Markets Magazine. Bloomberg LP. Archived from the original on February 6, 2009. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
  3. ^ Broad, William J. (July 7, 2014). "A Billionaire Mathematician's Life of Ferocious Curiosity". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
  4. ^ a b "Forbes Profile: Jim Simons". Forbes. Archived from the original on May 10, 2024. Retrieved May 10, 2024.
  5. ^ "Bitter Lawsuits. Epic Meltdowns. Vicious Arguments. Jim Simons' Renaissance Made Him Billions – But It Came at a Price". Institutional Investor. November 6, 2019. Archived from the original on January 1, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  6. ^ Stevens, Pippa (November 5, 2019). "The secret behind the greatest modern day moneymaker on Wall Street: Remove all emotion". CNBC. Archived from the original on April 25, 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  7. ^ Zuckerman, Gregory (November 2, 2019). "The Making of the World's Greatest Investor". The Wall Street Journal. Eastern Edition. No. Hedge Funds. United States. Dow Jones & Company Inc. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
  8. ^ Whipple, Tom (February 5, 2021). "Meet Milo Beckman, the whizz-kid making maths supercool". The Times. Archived from the original on August 1, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  9. ^ More Money than God. Penguin Press. June 10, 2010. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  10. ^ MSRI. "Mathematical Sciences Research Institute". msri.org. Archived from the original on September 27, 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  11. ^ "About". Simons Foundation. Archived from the original on April 6, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ IAU Minor Planet Center. Archived October 8, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.