Jinlin Cai ‘22 

Hi! My name is Jinlin (Daniel) Cai. I'm a member of the Hackley School Class of 2022 and a fellow ISRPian. I’m very interested in physics, philosophy, history, public policy, etc. I play guitar in my spare time and at school, I run the Hackley Model UN Program and Community Council. I also participate in debate and Ethics Bowl and am a part of the varsity swim, cross country, and track teams.

My interest in physics began as early as pre-school. I was obsessed with a book that mapped out the properties of the stars and the constellations I saw in the night sky. So when my teacher came to class one day and asked me what each of us younglings wanted to do in the future, I said: “observational astronomer” without knowing what it meant. Ever since then I have had a love for physics as it opened a window for me to peer into a universe greater than myself or any of us, as well as exposed me to a world whose mysteries stretch from the beginning to the end of space and time. When I joined IRP I wanted to tackle a singular question: what gave particles mass? This brought me to the field of particle physics research as this field tackles the most fundamental and smallest particles and factors of the universe that can give rise to properties such as mass. I thus worked at Columbia University’s Nevis Labs and the European Center of Nuclear Research (CERN) to help improve the methodology in which we look for this particle that helps define other particles’ masses called the Higgs boson and simultaneously search for a new theorized particle that may upend the world of physics if discovered!

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