Key Takeaways
- • Berkeley Inspire profiles mathematician and hedge fund founder Jim Simons Ph.D. '62, named Berkeley's 2016 Alumnus of the Year, tracing a career built on a series of 'left turns' from academia to codebreaking to quantitative trading.
- • Simons left academia in 1978 to found Renaissance Technologies, an early pioneer in quantitative trading, which he managed to become one of the world's most successful hedge funds.
- • Seven years before the profile, Simons moved into retirement and philanthropy with his wife Marilyn through the Simons Foundation, which funds math, science and autism research.
- • The Simons Foundation established Berkeley's Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing in 2012, bringing researchers together to study the nature and limits of computation.
- • Per SBU News, Simons died on May 10, 2024, at age 86, a date that postdates this 2016 Berkeley feature and is drawn from supplemental coverage.
Summary
Berkeley Inspire's profile of James "Jim" Simons, Ph.D. '62, recounts a career defined by sharp changes in direction. Simons earned his Berkeley doctorate in mathematics at age 23 and taught at MIT before turning to code-breaking for the Pentagon. After writing a 1967 letter to The New York Times Magazine disputing its upbeat account of the war in Vietnam, he lost that job soon after, according to the article.
He then chaired the mathematics department at Stony Brook University, where he and Berkeley's Shiing-Shen Chern co-published what is now known as the Chern-Simons Invariant, a foundational result linking physics and geometry. In 1978 he left academia to found Renaissance Technologies. Quoting California magazine, Simons said the firm did not hire people with prior Wall Street experience, preferring scientists who "wanted to try something different." The article describes the fund as one of the world's most successful hedge funds and Simons as "the world's smartest billionaire."
Simons later stepped back into retirement and philanthropy. He and his wife, Marilyn, oversee the Simons Foundation, which has committed millions to math and science research and education, including autism research. The foundation established Berkeley's Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing in 2012. The profile also describes his family's involvement in Berkeley causes, including his daughter Liz '82 and son Nat '89, M.A. '94, and their spouses, who support nanosciences, physics, solar energy, journalism and early childhood education. The piece was published as part of Berkeley's 2016 Achievement Awards recognition.
He then chaired the mathematics department at Stony Brook University, where he and Berkeley's Shiing-Shen Chern co-published what is now known as the Chern-Simons Invariant, a foundational result linking physics and geometry. In 1978 he left academia to found Renaissance Technologies. Quoting California magazine, Simons said the firm did not hire people with prior Wall Street experience, preferring scientists who "wanted to try something different." The article describes the fund as one of the world's most successful hedge funds and Simons as "the world's smartest billionaire."
Simons later stepped back into retirement and philanthropy. He and his wife, Marilyn, oversee the Simons Foundation, which has committed millions to math and science research and education, including autism research. The foundation established Berkeley's Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing in 2012. The profile also describes his family's involvement in Berkeley causes, including his daughter Liz '82 and son Nat '89, M.A. '94, and their spouses, who support nanosciences, physics, solar energy, journalism and early childhood education. The piece was published as part of Berkeley's 2016 Achievement Awards recognition.
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