Our History

Over the decades since Jim and Marilyn Simons established the Simons Foundation in 1994, the foundation has expanded humankind’s understanding of the universe. We have pioneered ideas and supported research that has driven scientific progress in everything from the search for the underlying causes of autism to uncovering the origins of the universe. Today, we remain steadfast in our mission to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences.

The foundation’s scope has expanded dramatically since its inception. Today, our programs enable groundbreaking research, foster large-scale scientific collaborations, and engage the public with science. Our in-house research division, the Flatiron Institute, develops and deploys cutting-edge computational methods and tools that propel science forward.

We recognize the power of convening and cross-disciplinary collaboration. By bringing researchers together, we can find answers to fundamental questions about our world and improve lives for generations to come.

Jim and Marilyn Simons built the Simons Foundation to reflect their enduring belief that mathematics and the basic sciences are long-term investments that will expand our knowledge and contribute to human progress.

Jim Simons was an accomplished mathematician whose award-winning research revolutionized fields from condensed matter physics to topology. In 1978, he founded what would become Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund that pioneered quantitative trading. He was an inspired and generous philanthropist, giving billions of dollars to support important work in math and science through the Simons Foundation, Simons Foundation International, Math for America and other philanthropic efforts.

Jim Simons died on May 10, 2024. Active in the foundation’s work until the end of his life, he left behind a monumental legacy.

In addition to co-founding the Simons Foundation and serving as its founding president from 1994 to 2021, Marilyn Simons has had a decades-long career as a philanthropic leader. She is an advocate for increased investment in basic science research and improved education for underserved communities. She continues to guide the foundation as chair of its board of trustees and serves in leadership roles at other organizations, including chairing Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s board of trustees and founding and chairing the Stony Brook Women’s Leadership Council. She holds a doctorate in economics from Stony Brook University.

When charting the foundation’s direction and forming its mission, Jim and Marilyn Simons knew that the most significant leaps in human knowledge arrive unexpectedly when great minds are free to explore new ideas. Much of the Simons Foundation’s support has always gone to mathematics, which forms the foundation’s intellectual core. Since the foundation’s earliest days, the Simons have generously funded elite mathematics centers around the world, understanding that math is the language of science and the universe.

As their funding of science increased, the Simons began to leverage the flexibility and speed of philanthropy to fill significant gaps in research funding. They began to back promising projects that would not otherwise have received funding, particularly innovative, higher-risk projects with incredible potential for discovery.

In 2003, Jim and Marilyn Simons began thinking about funding work on the science of autism. They wanted to invest in people and projects that could revolutionize understanding of the highly complex condition. As they would continue to do when planning large projects and investments, they gathered top experts from science, medicine and government to consult on how to make the most impactful funding decisions. That year’s meeting on autism planted the seeds and set the early direction of the foundation’s first major funding program, the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI).

Nearly 10 years after that roundtable, Jim and Marilyn Simons again convened top minds for what would become one of the most important gatherings in the foundation’s history. The 2012 Buttermilk Falls meeting brought 18 preeminent scientists to Milton, New York, to conceive and discuss exciting research funding possibilities with the Simons.

Out of this gathering came a new, targeted approach to math and science research. The foundation began funding 10-year, goal-oriented Simons Collaborations that would unite researchers — sometimes from across disciplines, sometimes competitors — to work on problems of fundamental scientific and mathematical importance.

An idea from that same Buttermilk Falls meeting led to the 2016 launch of the foundation’s Flatiron Institute as an in-house research hub to develop and leverage cutting-edge computational techniques to take on the increasing demands of data science. The Simons have said that creating the Flatiron Institute as an internal division brought things full circle for them. Their wealth — which provided the foundation’s funds — came from applying data science to financial markets. Now, those same funds support data analysis to advance basic science.

The foundation values open science as a way of supporting the scientific community and driving progress. The foundation has produced dozens of open-source software products, and its grantees are required to openly share their data. Data from the foundation’s groundbreaking studies of autism genetics and neuroscience are similarly freely available. The Flatiron Institute’s collaborative atmosphere, which focuses on openness and support of the larger scientific community, continues that legacy.

The foundation also recognizes the importance of inspiring, encouraging and supporting future mathematicians and scientists. Internal and external foundation programs, often with an eye to increasing diversity in math and science, support up-and-coming researchers and offer opportunities for all people to deepen their connections with science.

Our co-founders built the foundation to serve as a lasting champion of math and basic science that will support transformational work to benefit humankind for future generations. In that pursuit, the foundation preserves the goals and ideals of Jim and Marilyn Simons — finely honed strategies, elegance, innovation and intellectual rigor.

We continue their work to further their vision.