Jim Simons

James Harris Simons (/ˈsaɪmənz/; April 25, 1938 – May 10, 2024) was an American mathematician, billionaire hedge fund manager, and philanthropist.^[3] He was known as a quantitative analyst. In 1982, Simons founded Renaissance Technologies. He is seen as the greatest investor on Wall Street.^[4]

James Simons
Simons in 2007
Born	(1938-04-25)April 25, 1938 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	May 10, 2024(2024-05-10) (aged 86) New York City, U.S.
Education	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS) University of California, Berkeley (MS, PhD)
Occupation(s)	Hedge fund manager, mathematician, philanthropist, financial analyst
Known for	Founding and managing Renaissance Technologies Simons formula Chern–Simons form
Spouses	Barbara Bluestein ​ ​ (m. 1959; div. 1974)​ Marilyn Hawrys[1]
Children	5, including Nat[1]
Awards	Oswald Veblen Prize (1976)[2]
Scientific career
Fields	Differential geometry, cryptography, quantitative financial analysis
Thesis	On the Transitivity of Holonomy Systems (1962)
Doctoral advisor	Bertram Kostant
Doctoral students	Jeff Cheeger

As reported by Forbes, his net worth as of October 2019 is estimated to be $21.6 billion, making Simons the 21st-richest man in the United States.^[5]

Early life and education

James Harris Simons was born on April 25, 1938 in Newton, Massachusetts.^[6][7] to an American Jewish family,^[8] the only child of Marcia (née Kantor)^[9] and Matthew Simons, and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts.^[10]

He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958^[11] and a PhD in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley under supervision of Bertram Kostant in 1961 at the age of 23.^[11] After graduating from MIT, Simons traveled from Boston to Bogotá, Colombia on a motor scooter.^[12]

Honors and awards

In 2008, he was inducted into Institutional Investors Alpha's Hedge Fund Manager Hall of Fame along with Alfred Jones, Bruce Kovner, David Swensen, George Soros, Jack Nash, Julian Robertson, Kenneth Griffin, Leon Levy, Louis Bacon, Michael Steinhardt, Paul Tudor Jones, Seth Klarman and Steven A. Cohen.^[13]

He was named by the Financial Times in 2006 as "the world's smartest billionaire".^[14] He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2007.^[15] In 2011, he was included in the 50 Most Influential ranking of Bloomberg Markets Magazine.^[16]

A book about Simons and his investing methods, The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman was released November 5, 2019.^[17] In 2018, Trinity College Dublin awarded him with an honorary doctorate.^[18]

Death

Simons died on May 10, 2024 in New York City at the age of 86.^[19]