Jim Simons

James Harris Simons made his first mark in mathematics, developing the Chern-Simons form and contributing theoretical scaffolding to string theory. Then in 1982 he founded Renaissance Technologies and built the Medallion Fund, a quantitative hedge fund that used algorithms and models instead of intuition, compiling returns no one on Wall Street could match. By the time he died on May 10, 2024, his net worth stood at $31.4 billion. He and his wife Marilyn founded the Simons Foundation in 1994, which became the largest benefactor of Stony Brook University and in 2023 gave the school $500 million, the second-largest donation to a public university in U.S. history. An asteroid discovered in 1936 now carries his name.