National Academy of Engineering
What organization did David E. Shaw join in 2012?
David E . Shaw David Elliot Shaw ( born March 29 , 1951 ) is an American billionaire scientist and former hedge fund manager . He founded D . E . Shaw & Co. , a hedge fund company which was once described by Fortune magazine as the most intriguing and mysterious force on Wall Street . A former assistant professor in the computer science department at Columbia University , Shaw made his fortune exploiting inefficiencies in financial markets with the help of state-of-the-art high speed computer networks . In 1996 , Fortune magazine referred to him as King Quant because of his firms pioneering role in high-speed quantitative trading . In 2001 , Shaw turned to full-time scientific research in computational biochemistry , more specifically molecular dynamics simulations of proteins . Early life and education . Shaw was raised in Los Angeles , California . His father was a theoretical physicist who specialised in plasma and fluid flows , and his mother is an artist and educator . They divorced when he was 12 . His stepfather , Irving Pfeffer , was professor of finance at UCLA , and the author of papers supporting the efficient market hypothesis . Shaw earned a bachelors degree summa cum laude from the University of California , San Diego , a PhD from Stanford University in 1980 , and then became an assistant professor of the department of computer science at Columbia University . While at Columbia , Shaw conducted research in massively parallel computing with the NON-VON supercomputer . This supercomputer was composed of processing elements in a tree structure meant to be used for fast relational database searches . Earlier in his career , he founded Stanford Systems Corporation . Investment career . In 1986 , he joined Morgan Stanley , as vice president for technology in Nunzio Tartaglias automated proprietary trading group . In 1994 , Shaw was appointed by President Clinton to the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology , where he was chairman of the Panel on Educational Technology . In 2000 , he was elected to the board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science served as its treasurer 2000–2010 . In 2007 , Shaw was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 2009 , he was appointed by President Obama again to the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology . In 2012 , he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and in 2014 was elected to the National Academy of Sciences . D . E . Shaw . In 1988 he started his own hedge fund , D . E . Shaw & Co , which employed proprietary algorithms for securities trading . In 2018 , Forbes estimated his net worth at $6.2 billion . He is also a senior research fellow at the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at Columbia University , and an adjunct professor of biomedical informatics at Columbias medical school . Shaw is chief scientist of D . E . Shaw Research , which conducts interdisciplinary research in the field of computational biochemistry . According to the Institutional Investors Alpha magazines annual ranking for 2014 , D . E . Shaw , who made $530 million in 2014 , and James H . Simons of Renaissance Technologies who made $1.2 billion were among the top 25 earners in the hedge fund industry . They are both quantitative strategists who founded firms that build algorithms for trading . Political and philanthropic donations . Shaw has donated US$2.25 million to Priorities USA Action , a super PAC supporting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and $1 million to Organizing for Action . Through the Shaw Family Endowment Fund , by 2014 he and his wife have donated $400,000 to the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue , $400,000 to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center , and $800,000 to the Horace Mann School . From 2011 to 2017 , the Fund annually donated $1 million to Yale University , Stanford University , Harvard University , Princeton University , and $500,000 to Columbia University and Brown University . The college donations represent over 60% of the Funds philanthropy . Shaw was on the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . Personal life . Shaw is married to personal finance commentator and journalist Beth Kobliner . They are members of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York . They have three children , and live in New York City . In 2014 , Shaw purchased several homes in Westchester County , New York and combined them into a mansion that received press attention .