Jim Simons

[relbbaddoof]

The obvious obituary is here. It's typical of the Times in which we live, that all that matters is money.

Simons was also a good mathematician and responsible (or partially so) for many important advances. Such is the level of abstraction upon abstraction upon abstraction of modern mathematics, however, that his work is hard to explain, and it's not clear if the effort would be worth it: “Yeah, I was a good mathematician,” he said. “I wasn’t the greatest in the world, but I was pretty good.”

Apart from his mathematics,  his efforts also helped uncover an important connection with physics. In the mid 1970s he, chair of the math department at Stony Brook,  and Chen Ning Yang, the local physics Nobelist at that university, organized a set of mathematical physics seminars at which it became clear that what physicists called "gauge theories" (all modern theories of the fundamental forces -- except gravitation -- fall into this category) and what mathematicians called "fiber bundles" were essentially the same thing. That proved to be a fruitful interconnection.

I was a grad student in mathematical physics at Stony Brook shortly after these seminars, but derived no benefit from the presence of either Yang or Simons. Simons was already off starting to think about money, and Yang considered graduate students dirt and didn't mingle with us.

It's hard ultimately, though, to forgive Simons for enriching the Mercers.

[Anthony Bonner]

Lunch with him was an auction item for my kids Nursery School.  A parent much have been affiliated with one of his math organizations. It used to kill me that it would go for like 1200 bucks. But I never wanted to bid on the grounds of "wtf do I have to talk with him about"

The description said something like "after you eat Jim will light up a cigarette and offer you half of a roll of Oreos"

[Sneakeater]

For $1200 I’d want a whole roll. 

[Orik]

On 5/10/2024 at 7:59 PM, relbbaddoof said:

It's hard ultimately, though, to forgive Simons for enriching the Mercers.

And there was that little tax evasion thing, but overall one of the good guys. 

 

[Anthony Bonner]

You mean I can't magically turn short-term gains into long-term gains? Who could have known.

Sneak the 1200 compares to like 300k for Buffett

[Steve R.]

On 5/11/2024 at 1:59 AM, relbbaddoof said:

The obvious obituary is here. It's typical of the Times in which we live, that all that matters is money.

Simons was also a good mathematician and responsible (or partially so) for many important advances. Such is the level of abstraction upon abstraction upon abstraction of modern mathematics, however, that his work is hard to explain, and it's not clear if the effort would be worth it: “Yeah, I was a good mathematician,” he said. “I wasn’t the greatest in the world, but I was pretty good.”

Apart from his mathematics,  his efforts also helped uncover an important connection with physics. In the mid 1970s he, chair of the math department at Stony Brook,  and Chen Ning Yang, the local physics Nobelist at that university, organized a set of mathematical physics seminars at which it became clear that what physicists called "gauge theories" (all modern theories of the fundamental forces -- except gravitation -- fall into this category) and what mathematicians called "fiber bundles" were essentially the same thing. That proved to be a fruitful interconnection.

I was a grad student in mathematical physics at Stony Brook shortly after these seminars, but derived no benefit from the presence of either Yang or Simons. Simons was already off starting to think about money, and Yang considered graduate students dirt and didn't mingle with us.

It's hard ultimately, though, to forgive Simons for enriching the Mercers.

I always wondered what went on in those Math & Physics buildings.  But, as I’ve mentioned to you before (elsewhere), if you would’ve majored in English Lit instead, you would’ve had a better time at Stony Brook.  You could’ve figured out a career path later on.  Of course, both seem to have led here, but I have better concert stories.