杭州大学
Cai was born in Rui'an, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. In 1986, he graduated from the Department of Mathematics, Hangzhou University (previous and current Department of Mathematics, Zhejiang University), at 18 years old. In 1989, he then received an M.Sc. from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and in 1996, earned a PhD from Cornell University