On Jul. 7, 2014, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) announced a $50 million gift from Jim and Marilyn Simons to establish the Simons Center for Quantitative Biology. The Center will support research and education programs at one of the world’s leading independent biomedical research institutions, a birthplace of molecular biology and one of the first institutions in the world to recognize the importance of quantitation in the life sciences.

The Simons Center for Quantitative Biology brings together experts in applied mathematics, computer science, theoretical physics, and engineering to further basic research and investigation into illnesses including cancer, autism, bipolar disorder and depression. To chair the Simons Center, CSHL has recruited Adam Siepel, Ph.D. from Cornell University, where he directs the Ph.D. program in Computational Biology and is associate director of the Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics. Dr. Siepel will join CSHL in September.

Marilyn Hawrys Simons is President of the Simons Foundation, one of the country’s leading private funders of basic scientific research.  She has more than 25 years of experience supporting nonprofit organizations in New York City and Long Island.  In addition to support for basic research, she has been involved in K-12 education for underserved communities. She is treasurer of the board of the Learning Spring School, a New York City school for children aged 5-14 with diagnoses on the autism spectrum. She is also a member of the board of trustees at the East Harlem Tutorial Program, an after-school program in New York City.  Marilyn Simons received a B.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from The State University of New York at Stony Brook.