Mathematician makes a billion dollars

Here is the world's highest paid mathematician:

What could anyone conceivably do to earn $1.5 billion in a year?

That's how much James Simons, founder of New York hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, took home last year, according to a study released today on the growing compensation gap between business leaders and everyone else.

Simons ranks No. 214 on the Forbes list of billionaires. He first got famous for some brilliant work in differential geometry.

The article says that the highest paid real CEO was Terry Semel of Yahoo, who made $90M in 2006. He was then fired after stockholders complained about poor performance.