The National Institute of Social Sciences is delighted to announce James H. Simons and Marilyn H. Simons, Co-Founders and Co-Chairs of the Simons Foundation, as two of the 2023 Honorees for its Gold Honor Medal for distinguished service to society and humanity.

The National Institute will celebrate Mr. & Mrs. Simons and the other Honorees at the 109th Annual Gold Medal Gala, which will be held in person in New York City on Tuesday, December 5, 2023. We hope you will be able to join us to honor Mr. & Mrs. Simons and our other extraordinary Honorees and their accomplishments.

Hold the date for the gold medal gala

Dr. James H. Simons is Co-Chair of the Simons Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences. The Foundation’s philanthropic activities include a major research initiative on the causes of autism, and the establishment of an institute for research in mathematics and theoretical physics. The Foundation is particularly interested in the growing interface between the physical and life sciences and has established and endowed several such research programs at universities and institutions both in the US and abroad.

Dr. Simons is a director of Renaissance Technologies LLC, a highly quantitative investment firm, from which he retired in 2009 having founded the company and serving as its CEO for over thirty years. Previously he was chairman of the Mathematics Department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Earlier in his career he was a cryptanalyst at the Institute of Defense Analyses in Princeton, and taught mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

Dr. Simons holds a B.S. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley. His scientific research was in the area of geometry and topology. He received the American Mathematical Society Veblen Prize in Geometry in 1975 for work that involved a recasting of the subject of area minimizing multi- dimensional surfaces. Dr. Simons' most influential research involved the discovery and application of certain geometric measurements, now called the Chern-Simons Invariants, which have wide use, particularly in theoretical physics.

Dr. Simons is the founder and Chairman of Math for America, a nonprofit organization with a mission to significantly improve math education in our nation’s public schools. He serves as Trustee of Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Institute for Advanced Study, Rockefeller University, the New York Genome Center, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley. He is a member of the Board of the MIT Corporation and Chair Emeritus of the Stony Brook Foundation. Dr. Simons is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences.

Marilyn H. Simons is a philanthropist focused on funding basic science research. A co-founder of the Simons Foundation, she currently serves as a co-chair of the foundation’s board of trustees. Dr. Simons actively supports STEM research, education and outreach. Since 2019, she has served as chair of the board of trustees of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an outstanding U.S. research facility specializing in molecular biology and genetics—she has been a member of the Lab’s board since 2008. She is also a member of the boards of trustees of the National Museum of Mathematics and the Turkana Basin Institute, and serves as an advisory board member of Sandbox Films, a documentary studio dedicated to illuminating the art and beauty of scientific inquiry.

In 2014, Dr. Simons founded the Stony Brook Women’s Leadership Council, a mentoring program for outstanding undergraduate women at Stony Brook University, where she currently serves as the Council’s chair. In addition to her work to advance basic science research, she is active in supporting K–12 education for underserved communities. She is a member of the board of trustees of the LearningSpring School, a New York City-based school for children diagnosed on the autism spectrum as well as the East Harlem Scholars Academies in New York City. With her husband, Jim, Marilyn oversees the philanthropic work of the MJS Foundation, a private family foundation in New York.

Marilyn Simons received a B.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

————————————

One of the nation’s oldest honorary societies, the National Institute of Social Sciences has presented Gold Medals each year to men and women whose lives have manifested the highest achievements and who have made significant contributions to society and to humanity. This year’s Honorees joined a distinguished, diverse pantheon of Honorees that stretches back to 1913.

Recent Gold Medal Honorees include Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, Jennifer J. Raab, and Neil deGrasse Tyson (2022); Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Amartya Sen (2021); Max Stier, Darren Walker, and Judy Woodruff (2020); Paul Edward Farmer and Peter Gelb (2019); Daniel Kahneman, Geraldine Kunstadter, and Elizabeth Barlow Rogers (2018); Ron Chernow, Robert Shiller, and Michael Sovern (2017); Pauline Newman, Richard L. Ottinger, and Robert Putnam, (2016); and John Bogle, Paul Krugman, and Michelle Kwan (2015).

Previous Gold Medal Honorees, 1913-2022

About the National Institute of Social Sciences
Established in 1912, the National Institute of Social Sciences is a voluntary association of public-spirited citizens who explore issues of urgent and lasting concern. One of the nation’s oldest honorary societies, the National Institute sponsors speeches, discussions, and events that encourage balanced, non-partisan debate and discussion; celebrates distinguished Americans and world leaders who have contributed at the highest level to the welfare and improvement of society; and provides financial support to emerging scholars who are conducting research in the social sciences.