Jim Simons (mathematician) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
James Simons
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Simons in 2007
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| Born | April 25, 1938 Newton, Massachusetts, U.S.
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| Died | May 10, 2024 (aged 86) New York City, U.S.
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| Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS) University of California, Berkeley (MS, PhD) |
| Occupation | Hedge fund manager, mathematician, philanthropist, financial analyst |
| Known for | Founding and managing Renaissance Technologies Simons formula Chern–Simons form |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 5, including Nat |
| Awards | Oswald Veblen Prize (1976) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cryptography, investing, quantitative analysis |
| Thesis | On the Transitivity of Holonomy Systems (1962) |
| Doctoral advisor | Bertram Kostant |
| Doctoral students | Jeff Cheeger |
James Harris Simons (born April 25, 1938 – died May 10, 2024) was an amazing American mathematician, investor, and generous giver to good causes (a philanthropist). He started Renaissance Technologies, a special investment company in East Setauket, New York.
James Simons and his company were known for being "quantitative investors." This means they used advanced math and computer programs (algorithms) to find smart ways to invest money. They looked for small patterns in the market that others might miss. Because of how well his company, especially its Medallion Fund, performed over many years, Simons was called "the greatest investor on Wall Street." Some even said he was "the most successful hedge fund manager of all time."
In 2023, Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported that James Simons was worth about $29.4 billion. This made him one of the richest people in the world.
Simons was also famous for his work in understanding patterns. He helped create something called the Chern–Simons form with another mathematician, Shiing-Shen Chern. His work also helped develop string theory, which is a big idea in physics that tries to combine different parts of math and physics.
In 1994, James and his wife, Marilyn, started the Simons Foundation. This foundation supports important research in math and science. It gives a lot of money to Stony Brook University, where Marilyn went to college. It also supports his own old schools, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. Simons was involved with many important groups, including Math for America, which helps improve math teaching.
In 2016, an asteroid was named 6618 Jimsimons to honor his contributions to math and his charity work. This asteroid was first found by Clyde Tombaugh in 1936.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
James Harris Simons was born on April 25, 1938. He grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, as the only child of Marcia and Matthew Simons.
He earned his first degree in math from MIT in 1958. Then, when he was just 23, he got his PhD in math from the Berkeley in 1961. After finishing at MIT, Simons took an adventurous trip from Boston to Bogotá, Colombia, on a motor scooter!
Math and Science Work
Simons' math work mainly focused on the shapes and spaces in math, known as manifolds. His PhD paper in 1962 offered a new way to prove a classification of holonomy groups. Later, he worked with Shing-Shen Chern on a topic called characteristic classes. Together, they discovered the Chern–Simons secondary characteristic classes. This work was important for early topological quantum field theory, which is a part of modern physics.
Because of his important contributions to math, Simons received the American Mathematical Society (AMS) Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry in 1976. In 2014, he was chosen to be a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
From 1964 to 1968, Simons worked for the National Security Agency (NSA) to help break secret codes. He also taught math at MIT and Harvard University. He left the NSA because he spoke out against the Vietnam War. After that, he joined Stony Brook University. He was the head of the math department there from 1968 to 1978.
In 1973, IBM asked Simons to help test a computer code called Lucifer. This code was an early version of the Data Encryption Standard (DES). In 2004, Simons started Math for America, a group that helps improve math education in public schools in the United States. They do this by finding and supporting highly skilled math teachers.
Business Success
Renaissance Technologies
For over 20 years, James Simons' company, Renaissance Technologies, used math models to make trades in markets around the world. Many of these trades were done automatically by computers. Renaissance uses computer models to guess how prices of financial items will change. These models look at huge amounts of data to find patterns that are not random, helping them make predictions.
The main fund at Renaissance, called Medallion, has made over $100 billion in trading profits since it started in 1988. This means it had an average yearly return of 66.1% before fees, or 39.1% after fees, between 1988 and 2018. The Medallion fund is only for the company's own employees. Renaissance Technologies also manages three other funds that are open to outside investors. As of April 2019, these funds managed about $55 billion.
Renaissance hires smart people from many different fields, not just finance. They employ mathematicians, physicists, and statisticians. These experts help create and improve the complex models used for trading.
In 2006, Simons was named Financial Engineer of the Year. He earned a lot of money personally from his work. For example, he earned $2.6 billion in 2020 and $2.8 billion in 2007. On October 10, 2009, Simons announced he would retire from his daily role on January 1, 2010. However, he remained the non-executive chairman of Renaissance.
Wealth and Family Life
In 2023, Forbes magazine said Simons had a net worth of $30 billion. This made him one of the richest people on the Forbes 400 list.
Simons did not like being in the public eye and rarely gave interviews. He once quoted a character from the book Animal Farm to explain why: "God gave me a tail to keep off the flies. But I'd rather have had no tail and no flies." He felt the same way about publicity.
James Simons had five children. Sadly, his son Paul died in 1996 at age 34 in a bicycle accident. In 2003, his son Nicholas died at age 24 during a trip to Bali, Indonesia. His son Nat Simons is an investor and also gives to charity, just like his father. His daughter Liz Simons is an educator and philanthropist.
Giving Back (Philanthropy)
James Simons gave over $4 billion to good causes during his life. He and his wife, Marilyn Hawrys Simons, started the Simons Foundation in 1994. This charity supports projects in education and health, as well as scientific research. In 2003, the Simons Foundation created the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI). SFARI's goal is to help people better understand, diagnose, and treat autism spectrum disorders.
In 2004, Simons founded Math for America. He first promised $25 million from the Simons Foundation for this group, and later doubled that amount. The foundation continues to support Math for America, giving nearly $22 million in 2018.
Simons was one of the biggest donors to his old college, MIT. He and his wife helped pay for the renovation of the math department building, which was named in their honor in 2016. They also created the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT.
Simons also gave a lot of money to his graduate school, Berkeley. In 2012, the Simons Foundation promised $60 million to Berkeley to start the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. This is a leading place for research in computer science. In 2020, the foundation gave over $46 million more to support the institute. In 2023, they gave another $25 million. Simons and his wife also gave large amounts to other Berkeley-related groups, like the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute.
In 2016, the Simons Foundation started the Flatiron Institute. This institute brings together many computational scientists to work on big problems in biology, astrophysics, quantum mechanics, math, and neuroscience. It's a major investment in basic computational science.
In memory of his son Paul, James Simons created Avalon Park. This is a beautiful 130-acre nature preserve in Stony Brook. Paul died in 1996 when he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle.
His other son, Nick, drowned in 2003 while visiting Bali in Indonesia. Nick had worked in Nepal. Because of this, the Simons family became big supporters of healthcare in Nepal through the Nick Simons Institute.
In 2006, Simons and his wife donated $25 million to Stony Brook University. This was the largest donation ever to a State University of New York school at that time. In 2008, they gave another $60 million to start the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook. In 2011, they broke their own record with a huge $150 million donation to Stony Brook. This money went to medical research, new buildings, a neuroscience institute, and support for professors and students. In 2023, the university announced an amazing $500 million gift from the Simons Foundation.
His Passing
James Simons passed away on May 10, 2024, in New York City. He was 86 years old. He continued to be involved with his foundation's work until the very end of his life. He is survived by his wife, three children, five grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.
His Legacy and Awards
In 2008, he was added to the Hedge Fund Manager Hall of Fame.
The Financial Times called him "the world's smartest billionaire" in 2006. In 2011, Bloomberg Markets Magazine included him in their list of the "50 Most Influential" people.
A book about Simons and his investing methods, called The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman, was released in 2019. In 2018, Trinity College Dublin gave him an honorary doctorate degree.
Images for kids
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A robot, symbolizing technology and algorithms used by Simons.
