詹姆斯·H·西蒙斯：非典型數學家的無限可能

文/William+J.+Broad+譯/祝莉麗

James H. Simons likes to play against type. He is a billionaire star of mathematics and private investment who often wins praise for his financial gifts to scientific research and programs to get children hooked on math.

But in his Manhattan office， high atop a Fifth Avenue building in the Flatiron district， hes quick to tell of his career failings.

He was forgetful. He was demoted. He found out the hard way2） that he was terrible at programming computers. “Id keep forgetting the notation，” Dr. Simons said. “I couldnt write programs to save my life3）.”

After that， he was fired.

His message is clearly aimed at young people： If I can do it， so can you.

Down one floor from his office complex is Math for America， a foundation he set up to promote math teaching in public schools. Nearby， on Madison Square Park， is the National Museum of Mathematics， or MoMath， an educational center he helped finance. It opened in 2012 and has had a quarter million visitors.

Dr. Simons received his doctorate at 23； advanced code breaking for the National Security Agency at 26； led a university math department at 30； won geometrys top prize at 37； founded Renaissance Technologies， one of the worlds most successful hedge funds4）， at 44； and began setting up charitable foundations at 56. This year， he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences， an elite body that Congress founded during Lincolns presidency to advise the federal government.

With a fortune estimated at $12.5 billion， Dr. Simons now runs a tidy5） universe of science endeavors， financing not only math teachers but hundreds of the worlds best investigators. His favorite topics include gene puzzles， the origins of life， the roots of autism6）， math and computer frontiers， basic physics and the structure of the early cosmos.

Working closely with his wife， Marilyn， Dr. Simons has pumped more than $1 billion into esoteric7） projects as well as retail offerings like the World Science Festival and a scientific lecture series at his Fifth Avenue building.

On a wall in Dr. Simonss office is one of his prides： a framed picture of equations known as Chern-Simons， after a paper he wrote with Shiing-Shen Chern， a prominent geometer. Four decades later， the equations define many esoteric aspects of modern physics， including advanced theories of how invisible fields like those of gravity interact with matter to produce everything from superstrings8） to black holes.

A Boyhood Love of Math and Logic

Dr. Simons said he knew as a boy that he loved math and logic. At 14， during a Christmas break， he was hired by a garden supply store for a stockroom job. But he was quickly demoted to floor sweeper after repeatedly forgetting where things went. His bosses were incredulous9） when， at vacations end， he told them he wanted to study mathematics at the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Excellent test scores and the recommendation of a high school adviser got him into the prestigious school. He graduated in three years， and received his doctorate from the University of California， Berkeley， in three more. It was at Berkeley that he met Dr. Chern， a math prodigy10） from China. In his doctoral thesis， Dr. Simons advanced the mathematical understanding of curved spaces， a topic Einstein exploited in his general theory of relativity to show how gravity deforms space and time.

Returning east， he taught math at M.I.T.， then Harvard. In 1964， he was recruited into the shadowy world of government spying. At Princeton， while ostensibly11） part of the academic elite， he worked for the Institute for Defense Analyses.

At Princeton， Dr. Simonss cryptography strides12） helped the N.S.A. break codes and track potential military threats. But he failed as a programmer.

He also managed to fall into political conflict with his boss， Maxwell D. Taylor， a retired four-star Army general. In 1967， General Taylor defended the Vietnam War in a New York Times Magazine article. Dr. Simons objected. His reply， also published in The Times， said the conflict would “diminish our security” and urged a pullout “with the greatest possible dispatch13）.”

Soon after， he was dismissed， and Stony Brook University on Long Island courted14） him to become its math chairman. “It was a lousy department，” he recalled. “When I was interviewed by the provost15）， he said， ‘Well， Dr. Simons， I have to say youre the first person weve interviewed for this job who actually wants it.”

“I said： ‘I want it. I want it. It sounds like fun. And it was fun. And I went there， and we built up a very good department.”

In 1976， Dr. Simons won the Oswald Veblen Prize16） of the American Mathematical Society—geometrys highest honor—raising the departments stature.

But he became restless， and the business world beckoned17）. In 1978， he founded a predecessor to Renaissance Technologies in a strip mall18） close to the Stony Brook campus. In 1982， he set up Renaissance， which grew to occupy a 50-acre campus， complete with tennis courts.

In time19）， his novel approach helped change how the investment world looks at financial markets. The man who “couldnt write programs” hired a lot of programmers， as well as physicists， cryptographers， computational linguists， and， oh yes， mathematicians. Wall Street experience was frowned on. A flair for science was prized. The techies gathered financial data and used complex formulas to make predictions and trade in global markets.

The company thrived， rewarding investors with double-digit annual returns. It marked an early triumph of the “quants20）”—quantitative analysts who use advanced math to guide investments—and foreshadowed the ascendency of Big Data.

He also conceded that his curiosity drove him to examine all kinds of unusual possibilities， such as whether sunspots and lunar phases influenced the financial markets.

Success and Tragedy Were Companions

His philanthropic work began in 1994 when he and his wife founded the Simons Foundation， followed by other charities. Tragedy hit as his successes grew. On Long Island in 1996， his son Paul， 34， was killed by a car while riding a bicycle. In 2003， a younger son， Nicholas， 24， drowned while globetrotting21）.

Dr. Simons said he began thinking a lot about old math riddles. “It was a refuge，” he said， “a quiet place in my head.” One morning in Katmandu， as he relaxed on a hotel porch， the structure of a proof suddenly came to him. It was a solid advance—one he didnt forget. He discussed it with Dennis P. Sullivan， a mathematician at Stony Brook， and the two collaborated. In 2007， the resulting paper ran under the title “Axiomatic22） Characterization of Ordinary Differential Cohomology23）.” Dr. Sullivan said that Dr. Simons， in his career， had made a series of seminal contributions and that an early one “revolutionized the consciousness of later generations.”

In 2010， he and his wife were among the first billionaires to sign the Giving Pledge24）， promising to devote “the great majority” of their wealth to philanthropy. Of late， Dr. Simons said， his giving had accelerated， adding that he was particularly proud of Math for America. It awards stipends25） and scholarships of up to $100，000 to train high school math and science teachers and to supplement their regular salaries.

His passion， however， is basic research—the risky， freewheeling type. He recently financed new telescopes in the Chilean Andes that will look for faint ripples of light from the Big Bang， the theorized birth of the universe.

The afternoon of the interview， he planned to speak to Stanford physicists eager to detect the axion26）， a ghostly particle thought to permeate the cosmos but long stuck in theoretical limbo27）. Their endeavor “could be very exciting，” he said， his mood palpable28）， like that of a kid in a candy store.

For all his self-deprecations， Dr. Simons does credit himself with a contemplative quality that seems to lie behind many of his accomplishments.

“I wasnt the fastest guy in the world，” Dr. Simons said of his youthful math enthusiasms. “I wouldnt have done well in an Olympiad or a math contest. But I like to ponder. And pondering things， just sort of thinking about it and thinking about it， turns out to be a pretty good approach.”

詹姆斯·H·西蒙斯喜歡打破常規。他是一位擁有億萬家產的數學精英和私人投資精英，經常因資助科學研究和讓兒童對數學感興趣的項目而獲得贊譽。

但是在他位于曼哈頓的辦公室里——辦公室位于熨斗區第五大道的一座大廈高層——他很快便談到了自己職業生涯的低潮。

他曾經很健忘。他曾被降過職。他在吃過苦頭之后才發現自己在電腦編程方面糟糕得一塌糊涂。“我總是忘記那些符號，”西蒙斯博士說，“我死活都不會寫程序。”

在那之后，他被解雇了。

他顯然是在向年輕人傳達這樣的信息：如果我都能成功，你也能。

位于他辦公區下面一層的是“數學為美國”——由他創建的一個基金會，旨在提升公立學校的數學教學水平。不遠處，在麥迪遜廣場公園里，有一個國家數學博物館，也被稱為MoMath，那是他出資協建的一個教育中心。博物館于2012年開放，迄今已經接待了25萬參觀者。

西蒙斯博士23歲獲得博士學位；26歲推進了國家安全局的密碼破譯工作；30歲任大學數學系主任；37歲奪得幾何學的最高獎項；44歲創建文藝復興科技公司——世界上最成功的對沖基金管理機構之一；56歲開始籌辦慈善基金會。今年，他入選國家科學院，這是國會在林肯任總統期間創建的精英團體，旨在為聯邦政府獻計獻策。

身價預計達到125億美元的西蒙斯博士目前管理著數量頗為可觀的科學項目，他不僅為數學教師提供資金支持，還資助世界各地成百上千的優秀研究者。他最喜歡的課題包括基因之謎、生命起源、孤獨癥的根源、數學和計算機領域的前沿、基礎物理以及早期宇宙結構。

在與妻子瑪麗蓮的緊密合作下，西蒙斯博士已在深奧的項目上投入逾10億美元，同時也零零散散地捐助一些活動，比如世界科學節以及在他所在的第五大道的辦公樓里開辦的系列科學講座。

西蒙斯博士辦公室的墻上掛著令他驕傲的成就之一：鑲在相框里的人稱“陳-西蒙斯”的方程式，它們出自西蒙斯與杰出幾何學家陳省身共同撰寫的論文。40年過去了，這些方程式為現代物理學中許多深奧的問題提供了解釋，包括諸如重力場這類無形的場如何與物質相互作用，從而產生超弦、黑洞等現象的先進理論。

熱愛數學和邏輯的少年時代

西蒙斯博士說孩提時代他就知道自己熱愛數學和邏輯。14歲那年的圣誕假期，他受雇于一家園藝用品店，從事庫房管理工作，但很快就被降為地板保潔員，因為他一再忘記貨物存放的位置。當假期結束，西蒙斯對上司說自己想去附近的麻省理工學院學數學時，他們簡直難以置信。

西蒙斯憑借優異的考試成績和高中導師的推薦得以進入那所名校。三年后他順利畢業。之后他又用三年時間取得了加州大學伯克利分校的博士學位。正是在伯克利分校時，他遇到了陳博士，一位來自中國的數學奇才。在博士論文中，西蒙斯博士推進了對彎曲時空的數學解釋，那是愛因斯坦在他的廣義相對論中用來展示重力是如何讓空間和時間發生變形的課題。

回到東部以后，他曾在麻省理工學院教數學，后來又去了哈佛任教。1964年，他被神秘的政府間諜部門招入麾下。在普林斯頓，他表面上是一個學術精英，實際上是在為國防分析研究所效力。

在普林斯頓，西蒙斯博士在密碼學技術方面取得的進展對美國安全局破解代碼和跟蹤潛在的軍事威脅很有幫助。但他卻是一個失敗的程序員。

他還和他的上司——退役的四星陸軍上將麥斯威爾·D·泰勒發生了政治沖突。1967年，泰勒上將在《紐約時報雜志》上發表了一篇為越南戰爭辯護的文章。西蒙斯博士對此表示反對。他的回應也發表在《紐約時報雜志》上，他說沖突會“削弱我們的安全”，竭力主張“以盡可能快的速度”撤軍。

這之后不久，他就被解雇了，位于長島的紐約州立大學石溪分校邀請他擔任該校的數學系主任。“那個系很糟糕，”他回憶道，“教務長面試我的時候說：‘西蒙斯博士，我必須告訴你，在我們面試過的應聘這個職位的人中，你是第一個真正想要這份工作的人。”

“我說道：‘我想做這份工作，我愿意做，它聽起來挺有意思。而且確實有意思。我去了那兒，我們把那個系建設得很好。”

1976年，西蒙斯博士獲得了美國數學學會頒發的韋伯倫幾何學獎——幾何學的最高榮譽，這使他所在系的地位得以提升。

但是他開始不滿足于此，商界向他發出了召喚。1978年，他在石溪分校旁邊沿公路的商業區創建了文藝復興科技公司的前身。1982年，他成立了文藝復興科技公司，其后來逐漸發展成占地50英畝并附帶網球場的公司。

最終，他的創新方法改變了投資界對金融市場的看法。這個“不會編程”的人雇了很多程序員，還有物理學家、密碼學家、計算機語言專家，哦，當然，還有數學家。在這里，華爾街的經驗不受青睞。科學才華受到珍視。工程師們收集金融數據，然后使用復雜的公式進行預測，并在全球市場進行交易。

公司蓬勃發展，每年為投資者帶來兩位數的回報。這標志著“寬客”——利用高等數學知識指導投資的量化分析師——取得了初步成功，也預示著大數據將占據支配地位。

西蒙斯也承認，他的好奇心促使他去探索各種非同尋常的可能性，比如太陽黑子和月相是否對金融市場有影響。

成功與災難如影隨形

他的慈善事業始于1994年，那年他和妻子成立了西蒙斯基金會，此后又陸續建立了其他慈善機構。成功紛至沓來，災難也隨之來襲。1996年，他34歲的兒子保羅在長島騎自行車時被汽車撞倒，命喪車輪之下。2003年，他年齡更小些的兒子——24歲的尼古拉斯在周游世界時溺水身亡。

西蒙斯博士說，他開始用心琢磨那些古老的數學謎題。“那是避難所，”他說，“是我頭腦中一個安靜的角落。”在加德滿都的一天上午，當西蒙斯在旅館的走廊休息時，他突發靈感，想出了一個證明結構。這是個實實在在的進步——他沒有忘記這個想法。他和石溪分校的另一位數學家丹尼斯·P·蘇利文就此進行了討論，兩人開始合作。2007年，合作有了結果：一篇題為《普通微分上同調公理特征》的論文發表。蘇利文博士說，西蒙斯博士在他的職業生涯中做出了一系列重大貢獻，早期的一個貢獻“顛覆了后世數代人的觀念”。

2010年，他和妻子成為首批簽署“捐贈誓言”的億萬富豪，他們承諾會將“絕大多數”的個人財富捐給慈善事業。西蒙斯博士透露，最近他已在加快捐贈速度，還說自己尤其為“數學為美國”感到驕傲。這家非營利機構提供高達10萬美元的津貼和獎學金，用以培訓高中的數學和科學教師，并補貼他們的日常收入。

然而，他最熱衷的還是基礎研究——那類潛藏風險又天馬行空的研究。他最近贊助了設在智利安第斯山脈的新型望遠鏡，它們將用來觀察宇宙大爆炸時殘留的微弱光波，宇宙大爆炸是宇宙理論上的誕生。

接受采訪的那個下午，他打算與斯坦福大學一群渴望探測軸子的物理學家們交流，軸子是一種幽靈般的粒子，被認為遍布宇宙，但對它的研究長久以來都處于理論階段，停滯不前。他們的努力“可能令人非常振奮”，說這話時，他的情緒溢于言表，就像進了糖果店的孩子似的。

盡管西蒙斯博士謙遜有加，他還是承認自己具有愛思考的優點，而那似乎是他取得眾多成就背后的原因。

“我不是世上最機敏的人，”西蒙斯博士在談到自己年輕時對數學的熱愛時說，“要是參加奧數或某個數學競賽，我應該拿不了好成績。可我喜歡沉思。沉思就是反反復復地思考某些事兒。事實證明，這方法棒極了。”

1. ferocious [f??r????s] adj. 十分強烈的，極度的

2. find out the hard way：吃了不少苦頭才理解

3. sb. cant do sth. to save his/her life：[非正式]某人完全不會做某事

4. hedge fund：對沖基金，由金融期貨、金融期權等金融衍生工具與金融組織結合后，以高風險投機為手段，以高收益為目的的金融基金

5. tidy [?ta?di] adj.〈口〉（數量）相當大的；令人滿意的

6. autism [???t?z（?）m] n. [心]孤獨癥

7. esoteric [?es???ter?k] adj. 難理解的；只有內行才懂的

8. superstring [?su?p?（r）?str??] n. [物]超弦，理論物理學的一個理論，認為世界的物質不是由點狀的粒子組成的，而是由十分小的弦構成的，粒子只不過是弦振動時產生的結果。

9. incredulous [?n?kredj?l?s] adj. 懷疑的，不相信的

10. prodigy [?pr?d?d?i] n. 奇才，天才

11. ostensibly [??stens?bli] adv. 表面上地，貌似真實地

12. stride [stra?d] n. 進展，進步

13. dispatch [d??sp?t?] n. 迅速，利索

14. court [k??（r）t] vt. 請求

15. provost [?pr?v?st] n. （美國某些大學的）教務長

16. Oswald Veblen Prize：韋伯倫幾何學獎，設立于1961年，為紀念美國數學家奧斯瓦爾德·韋伯倫而設立。

17. beckon [?bek?n] vi. 吸引，引誘

18. strip mall：〈主美〉（尤指郊區或小市鎮的）沿公路商業區

19. in time：經過一段時間之后；最終，遲早

20. quant [?kw?nt] n. 寬客，指一群靠數學模型分析金融市場的物理學家和數學家。

21. globetrot [?ɡl??b?tr?t] vi. 環球旅行，周游世界

22. axiomatic [??ksi??m?t?k] adj. 公理的

23. Differential Cohomology：微分上同調

24. Giving Pledge：捐贈誓言，由沃倫·巴菲特和比爾·蓋茨于2010年發起的慈善活動，旨在號召億萬富翁在生前或去世后至少用自己一半的財富來做慈善。

25. stipend [?sta?pend] n. 薪俸，生活津貼

26. axion [??ksi?n] n. 軸子，是無電荷、無自旋以及小質量的假定粒子。

27. limbo [?l?mb??] n. 停滯不前的狀態

28. palpable [?p?lp?b（?）l] adj. 明顯的，顯而易見的