Jim ’58 and Marilyn Simons

The Simons Foundation, founded by Jim and Marilyn Simons, has made the lead gift for the renovation of Building 2, creating a new home for our faculty, students, staff, and visitors. Jim is well known as a great mathematician and legendary hedge fund manager, but he wasn’t always so successful. When he was 14, Jim got a job at a garden supply store. He was first sent to the stock room, and reports “I was terrible at it.” He couldn’t remember what went where. The couple who owned the store demoted him to floor sweeper. That suited him more. “I loved it,” Jim remembers. “I got to walk and think—and I got paid.” When the job was over, the owners asked Jim about his future plans. He told them he intended to study mathematics at MIT. “My bosses thought this was hilarious, the kid who couldn’t remember where to put the sheep manure wanting to study math.”

Jim completed his undergraduate degree in math at MIT in three years. Lead Gift from the Simons Foundation Catalyzes Building 2 Renovation He went on to Berkeley for a PhD and taught at both MIT and Harvard. He then got a job with the Institute for Defense Analysis, from which he was not just demoted but fired, this time for criticizing the war in Vietnam.

Jim went on to become head of the Department of Mathematics at Stony Brook. He was only 30 years old. Jim’s area of research is in geometry and topology. He received the American Mathematical Society’s 1976 Veblen Prize in Geometry for work that involved a recasting of the subject of area-minimizing multidimensional surfaces. A consequence was the settling of two classical questions, the Bernstein conjecture and the Plateau problem. His most influential research involved the discovery and application of certain geometric measurements, now called the Chern-Simons invariants.

Then Jim decided to make a change. He started an investment business that deployed sophisticated proprietary models. These generated astonishing returns. The New York-based company, Renaissance Technologies, employs mathematics and physics PhDs to analyze the behavior of markets. Its Medallion Fund is one of the most successful hedge funds of all time.

Jim is now retired from the day-to-day management of Renaissance and is concentrating on mathematics and philanthropy. A few years ago, Jim gave a guest lecture at MIT on gauge theory and topology. More recently, he gave the Dean of Science Colloquium entitled, “Mathematics, Common Sense, and Good Luck: My Life and Careers.” It filled every seat in lecture hall 10-250.

In addition to their magnificent support of our new home, Jim and Marilyn have endowed three professorships in mathematics: the Simons Chair, held by Richard Melrose; the Norman Levinson Chair, held by Tobias Colding; and the Isadore Singer Chair, held by Tom Mrowka.

As Mathematics Department Head Michael Sipser says, “Jim and Marilyn have been instrumental in changing the landscape of mathematics by their extraordinary support at MIT and throughout the country, and by changing the perception of mathematics from ivory tower to an instrument of extraordinary power. We are all deeply grateful to them."

For information on making a gift to the Mathematics Department, please contact Senior Director of Development for Mathematics Erin McGrath Tribble at or 617-452-2807.

This was originally featured in the 2012 Integral.