I miss seeing Jim every day. It was never every day; it was a few times a week. And I felt he was always open to suggestions and unafraid to make them himself. The thing that really was amazing was watching Marilyn grow in the area of science, especially after she got involved with Cold Spring Harbor, became more confident in her own thinking and certainly in her presentations. She's more confident and has grown as a scientist and as a leader, so they're really a team, Jim and Marilyn.

But the thing that's wonderful about both Jim and Marilyn is they have very humanistic impulses. It's true, Jim is a multi-billionaire and made his money on the stock market, but he's very human. And they've been through several life-changing tragedies. They lost two sons through accidents – bicycle and swimming. Everyone at the foundation feels they've learned a lot of science and humanism from Jim. He cares a lot about people, and we became good friends.

I'll tell a story about Jim which made him and Marilyn laugh, so I'm going to tell it again. I was asked to give a keynote address at one of the main meetings of the Simons Foundation, which was in a big museum in town, must've been 200 or 300 people there. And I wanted to say what SFARI was, how wonderful it was, and I wanted to talk about Jim. I said I got a little worried when Jim told me that as he aged, he didn't need as much sleep. I don't know if you've heard this story. And I got worried because I thought I was going to be up all hours of the night. But then I realized, he made it up during the day.

If you watch Jim, he's asleep at most lectures and he often is asleep in the middle of a small meeting, a group meeting in a conference room, like the one we're in now. He even dozes off in the middle of an animated conversation with me. Marilyn patted him on the back and said don't worry. But that's become a key discussion point between us and it doesn't offend him, that's what's wonderful about him. He recognizes this and accepts it. I've never worked with an administrator who's as knowledgeable, as motivated, and as kind as Jim. He can be tough, but he's fair. And I'm looking forward to working with David Spergel. Jim asked me to stay on until 2024, which really made me very gratified, at a very, very reduced salary, one day a week.