Stony Brook University received a $60 million gift from billionares Jim Simons and his wife Marilyn on Wednesday for the creation of a new center for math and physics. This is the largest donation ever given to a New York State university.

In a press conference at Stony Brook's Manhattan campus, Governor Eliot Spitzer in conjunction with President Shirley Strum Kenny, announced the private contribution to Stony Brook University for the creation and endowment of the the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.

Jim Simons was the first chair of the mathematics department of Stony Brook, starting it up in the late 1960s. He is now president of the highly successful hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies LLC. Marilyn is the president of the Simons Foundation and a graduate of Stony Brook, first with an undergraduate degree and secondly with a PhD in economics.

“Really, this is remarkable,” Spitzer said of the endowment. “It is stunning. I wish I studied my geometry more vigorously in years past,” he said, to laughter from the audience.

The $60 million endowment will be used in constructing the building and give the program more professors, money for research, and enhanced training.

The first professor Stony Brook has succeeded in recruiting is Michael Douglas, professor of physics at Rutgers University and director of the New High Energy Theory Center. He is also well known for his part in the development of the first solvable models of string theory.

Governor Spitzer called the endowment and others like it, “critical for the economic future of the state,” he said. “It’s also a moral imperative. It’s also something we believe in.”

Stony Brook will “restore New York to the pinnacle of higher education,” Spitzer said. However, “This can’t happen without private support,” he added.

Simons, a small, frail man at the age of 69, addressed the audience with an anecdote that he says perfectly describes his relationship with his wife, ultimately leading him to success in his business, philanthropy and life in general.

“She says, ‘If you want to know how a television works, ask Jim,’” he said. “If you want to know how to work a television, ask me.” Simons met his wife at Stony Brook, an event she recalled tearfully.

“I met my wonderful husband and got a wonderful education that opened the world to me,” she said., choking up and pausing before continuing. “I’m so pleased to give back to the university that has given me so much.”

Dennis Sullivan, a professor of mathematics at Stony Brook and National Medal of Science recipient, is on the steering committee charged with starting getting the center started.

He said that the building would be able to incorporate “separate disciplines that don’t really talk to each other so much,” he said. “So I’m excited about the synthesis this will create.”

The building will be constructed in the area next to the math building on the main campus.

“So many magical things are happening right now,” President Kenny said.

Richard Nasti, a Stony Brook alumnus and chairman of the Stony Brook Council agreed, “Stony Brook is on the verge of becoming one of the truly great universities of the world.”