James Simons is an American mathematician, billionaire hedge fund manager, and philanthropist with a net worth of $24 billion dollars. He is the founder of Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund based in Setauket-East Setauket, New York. He and his fund are known to be quantitative investors, using mathematical models and algorithms to make investment gains from market inefficiencies.
Due to the long-term aggregate investment returns of Renaissance and its Medallion Fund, Simons is described as the “greatest investor on Wall Street”. As reported by Forbes, his net worth is estimated to be $23.5 billion, making him among the richest people in the United States.
Outside of finance, Simons is known for his studies on pattern recognition. He developed the Chern–Simons form (with Shiing-Shen Chern), and contributed to the development of string theory by providing a theoretical framework to combine geometry and topology with quantum field theory. In 1994, Simons founded the Simons Foundation with his wife to support researches in mathematics and fundamental sciences.
He is one of the biggest donors to the University of California, Berkeley, establishing the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing in 2012, and to Berkeley’s Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, where he serves as a member of the Board of Trustees.
In 2016, asteroid 6618 Jimsimons, discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1936, was named after Simons by the International Astronomical Union in honor of his contributions to mathematics and philanthropy.
