James Harris Simons

James Harris Simons
Simons speaking at the Differential Geometry, Mathematical Physics, Mathematics and Society conference in 2007 in Bures-sur-Yvette.
Born	1938 (age 78–79) Newton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of California Berkeley.
Occupation	Professor, Stony Brook University Founder and CEO of Renaissance Technologies
Known for	Chern–Simons form Renaissance Technologies
Net worth	$16.5 billion (September 2016)
Spouse(s)	Barbara Simons Marilyn Hawrys Simons
Children	3
Parent(s)	Matthew Simons Marcia Kantor
Awards	Oswald Veblen Prize (1976)

External video

A Rare Interview with the Mathematician Who Cracked Wall Street, 23:03, TED Talks

The Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy Ceremony - 17th October 2013, 1:31:40 (Simons section at 52:00-1:05:30), Scottish Parliament

James Harris "Jim" Simons (born 1938) is an American mathematician, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He is a code breaker and studies pattern recognition. Simons is the co-inventor, with Shiing-Shen Chern, of the Chern–Simons form (Chern and Simons (1974)), and contributed to the development of string theory by providing a theoretical framework to combine geometry and topology with quantum field theory. Simons was a professor of mathematics at Stony Brook University and was also the former chair of the Mathematics Department at Stony Brook.

In 1982, Simons embarked a business career where he founded Renaissance Technologies, a private hedge fund based in New York City with over $25 billion under management. Simons retired at the end of 2009 as CEO of one of the world's most successful hedge fund firms. Simons' net worth is estimated to be $16.5 billion.

Simons lives with his wife Marilyn H. Simons in Manhattan and Long Island, and is the father of five children; two of his children died young under tragic circumstances—a drowning and an auto crash.

Simons shuns the limelight and rarely gives interviews, citing Benjamin the Donkey in Animal Farm for explanation: "God gave me a tail to keep off the flies. But I'd rather have had no tail and no flies." On October 10, 2009, Simons announced he would retire on January 1, 2010 but remain at Renaissance as nonexecutive chairman.

In 2016, asteroid 6618 Jimsimons, discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1936, was named after Simons by the International Astronomical Union in honor of his numerous contributions to mathematics and philanthropy.

James Harris Simons was born to a Jewish family, the only child of Marcia (née Kantor) and Matthew Simons, and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father owned a shoe factory.