James 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	Mathematician, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist
Known for	Founding and managing Renaissance Technologies Creating the Chern–Simons form with Shiing-Shen Chern
Net worth	US$18 billion (February 2017)
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 known as a quantitative investor and in 1982 founded Renaissance Technologies, a private hedge fund based in New York City. Although Simons retired from the fund in 2009, he remains its non-executive chairman and adviser.

He is also known for his studies on pattern recognition for which he developed (with Shiing-Shen Chern) the Chern–Simons form, 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 mathematics professor and subsequent chair of the mathematics department at Stony Brook University.

As a consequence of his investment career, Forbes Magazine estimated Simons' net worth is to be US$18 billion as of February 2017.

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.

He received a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958 and a Ph.D., also in mathematics, from the University of California, Berkeley, under supervision of Bertram Kostant in 1961, at the age of 23.