Jim Simons

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

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.

## Early life and education

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

He 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 supervision of Bertram Kostant in 1961 at the age of 23. After graduating from MIT, Simons traveled from Boston to Bogotá, Colombia on a motor scooter.

## 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.

He was named by the _Financial Times_ in 2006 as "the world's smartest billionaire". He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2007. In 2011, he was included in the 50 Most Influential ranking of _Bloomberg Markets Magazine_.

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. In 2018, Trinity College Dublin awarded him with an honorary doctorate.

## Death

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

## Other websites

- James Simons on mathematics, common sense and good luck: my life and careers, MIT
- Jim Simons Speaks: Just No to Google and Goldman Sachs
- James Simons (1-hour interview, May 2015) – Numberphile
- Speech at MIT
- A rare interview with the mathematician who cracked Wall Street – TED Talk

## Infobox (scientist)

- **fields**: Differential geometry, cryptography, Quantitative analysis (finance), quantitative financial analysis
- **child**: yes
- **thesis year**: 1962
- **thesis title**: On the Transitivity of Holonomy Systems
- **thesis url**: https://doi.org/10.2307/1970273
- **doctoral advisor**: Bertram Kostant
- **doctoral students**: Jeff Cheeger


## Infobox (person)

- **name**: James Simons
- **image**: Jim Simons at MSRI.jpg
- **caption**: Simons in 2007
- **birth place**: Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
- **death place**: New York City, U.S.
- **education**: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Bachelor of Science, BS)
University of California, Berkeley (Master of Science, MS, Doctor of Philosophy, PhD)
- **occupation**: Hedge fund manager, mathematician, philanthropist, financial analyst
- **children**: 5, including Nat Simons, Nat
- **awards**: Oswald Veblen Prize (1976)
- **known for**: Founding and managing Renaissance Technologies
Simons' formula, Simons formula
Chern–Simons form