[caption id="attachment_6538" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Jim Simons"][/caption] Jim Simons, the founder and superstar manager of Renaissance Technologies, is one of the latest hedge fund managers to demonstrate his philanthropy this year. The New York Times announced that Simons and his wife Marilyn will be donating $150 million to Stony Brook University, the University where Simons talked mathematics early in his career. “He joined two governors, David A. Paterson and Andrew M. Cuomo, in pressing the Legislature to shore up the finances of the State University of New York, the parent system of Stony Brook, in part by raising tuition,” reports the New York Times. “He made it clear that he could be very generous if the state acted, and this year lawmakers made the kinds of changes he sought.” Simons’ donation, which is to be paid over 7 years, is “more than triple the amount the University typically [raises] from all donors in the year.” Like many public universities, “SUNY has faced declining state support, but unlike most of them, SUNY cannot compensate by raising tuition,” because “in New York, the Legislature sets tuition at state universities, and for years it has resisted the rapid increases seen around the country.”