Based in New York: success of Alumni Award winner (Issue 14, 2011)
New York-based, Dr Yong Cai is a recipient of a 2010 Alumni Award and a recognised world-leading expert in the area of Inelastic X-ray Scattering; an important technique using the bright and intense x-rays from the latest generation of synchrotron sources, for the precision investigation of the atomic and electronic properties of materials.
La Trobe University was Dr Cai’s first ever foreign experience outside of where he originally came from – China. He found it intimidating initially, but later he felt full of excitement.
‘The first night I stayed at Chisholm College, I did not dare to venture out. That changed completely the second day after I had a chance to meet with friendly students and staff at the University,’ says Dr Cai.
Dr Cai fondly remembers La Trobe University’s community-like atmosphere in and around the campus, the openness of the academic environment, and the strong support and encouragement he received from teachers and fellow students.
‘Another aspect that I valued dearly is the tolerance and acceptance of foreign students into the social life of all my teachers and fellow students.
‘I received numerous invitations to visit family homes and go to social events, where I learned to respect and value the differences between our cultures. These experiences make me the person I am today,’ says Dr Cai.
As an international student from China, he earned his PhD in Physics from La Trobe University in 1993, and has since spent most of his research career at state-of-the-art synchrotron facilities around the world.
Dr Cai is currently the Inelastic X-ray Scattering Group Leader of the Photon Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory in US. He joined Brookhaven in December 2007, and has since been leading the effort to develop a new IXS beamline for the new synchrotron currently under construction at Brookhaven, aiming to achieve ten times better resolution than any existing instrument in the world.