Renaissance Technologies

Renaissance Technologies founder James Simons is a math whiz who served as a U.S. National Security Agency code breaker during the cold war and later as chairman of Stony Brook University's mathematics department. But he's best known for blazing a trail for the use of quantitative analysis in the hedge fund industry. His aptly named firm uses sophisticated computer-based models to predict market changes and execute trades, with the firm relying on scientists and mathematicians – mainly statisticians and physicists, a third of whom hold Ph.D.s – to write its moneymaking algorithms. RenTec, as it's known, has consistently outperformed its rivals over the past three decades. The firm's flagship fund, the $10 billion Medallion Fund, earned…