31 Facts About Jim Simons

James Harris Simons was an American hedge fund manager, investor, mathematician, and philanthropist.

Jim Simons was the founder of Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund based in East Setauket, New York.

In 2023, the Jim Simons Foundation gave $500 million to Stony Brook University, the second-largest donation to a public university in US history.

James Harris Jim Simons was born on April 25,1938, to an American Jewish family, the only child of Marcia and Matthew Jim Simons, and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Jim Simons received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958 and a PhD in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley under the supervision of Bertram Kostant in 1961, at age 23.

In 1964, Jim Simons worked with the National Security Agency to break codes.

Jim Simons tried starting a trading company named iStar with colleagues including Richard Leibler, but was discovered by management, and the effort failed.

In 2004, Jim Simons founded Math for America, a nonprofit organization with a mission to improve mathematics education in US public schools by recruiting more highly qualified teachers.

Jim Simons founded the hedge fund management firm Monemetrics, which he later renamed Renaissance Technologies.

Jim Simons gradually realized that it should be possible to make mathematical models of the data he was collecting.

In 2006, Jim Simons was named Financial Engineer of the Year by the International Association of Financial Engineers.

On October 10,2009, Jim Simons announced he would retire on January 1,2010, but remain at Renaissance as nonexecutive chairman.

In 2014, Jim Simons reportedly earned $1.2 billion, including a share of his firm's management and performance fees, cash compensation, and stock and option awards.

Jim Simons shunned the limelight and rarely gave interviews, citing Benjamin the Donkey in Animal Farm: 'God gave me a tail to keep off the flies.

Jim Simons was known for smoking up to two packs a day of Merit cigarettes.

Jim Simons was a major contributor to Democratic Party political action committees.

Jim Simons donated $25,000 to Republican senator Lindsey Graham's super PAC.

On July 22,2014, Jim Simons was subject to bipartisan condemnation by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for the use of complex basket options to shield day-to-day trading as long-term capital gains.

In 1994, he and his wife, Marilyn Hawrys Jim Simons, co-founded the Jim Simons Foundation, a charitable organization that supports projects related to education, health, and scientific research.

Jim Simons was among the largest contributors to his undergraduate alma mater, MIT.

Jim Simons was a life member emeritus of the MIT Corporation.

Jim Simons was a major benefactor of his graduate alma mater, Berkeley.

In 2012, the Jim Simons Foundation pledged $60 million to Berkeley to establish the Jim Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, the world's leading institute for collaborative research in theoretical computer science.

In October 2023, the university announced that the Jim Simons Foundation had awarded the institute an additional $25 million as a matching pledge.

In 2016, the Jim Simons Foundation established the Flatiron Institute to house five groups of computational scientists.

In memory of his son Paul, whom he had with his first wife, Barbara Jim Simons, he established Avalon Nature Preserve, a 130-acre nature preserve in Stony Brook.

Jim Simons died peacefully in New York City on May 10,2024, at age 86, surrounded by his family.

Jim Simons was active in the work of his foundation until the end of his life.

Jim Simons was named by the Financial Times in 2006 as "the world's smartest billionaire".

Jim Simons was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2007.

Jim Simons was awarded honorary doctorates by York University and the University of Edinburgh in 2016, and Trinity College Dublin in 2018.