Financiers Jim Simons and Russell Carson Join Forces to Give $125 Million for Genomic Research

The multibillionaire mathematician Jim Simons and private-equity expert Russell Carson together pledged $125 million to the New York Genome Center, on whose board they both serve. Simons will give $100 million through his Simons Foundation, and Carson will chip in $25 million through his Carson Family Charitable Trust.

This is the second time the two men have joined forces to give the center a nine-figure gift. In 2016, they collaborated on a $100 million donation to match contributions from other donors over three years, with Simons providing $80 million and Carson kicking in $20 million.

Their latest joint gift will back the center’s work in genomic sequencing, computational analysis, the development of new genomic tools, and research into a variety of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases and cancers. The money will be paid out over the next five years.

Simons founded the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies and led the State University of New York at Stony Brook’s mathematics department from 1968 to 1976. Forbes has pegged his wealth at $21.5 billion, and with this latest pledge he and his wife, Marilyn, have given at least $376 million to nonprofits since 2013, according to a Chronicle tally. Carson co-founded the private-equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and has given about $55 million in recent years, including his latest pledge.

The center is a consortium of hospitals, medical schools, research institutions, and other entities that are working to expand biomedical research and patient care. The two men helped to start it in 2011.