Cai Ronggen is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences, chief professor of the School of Fundamental Physics and Mathematical Sciences of Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, and Director and Party Secretary of the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In 1995, he received his Ph.D. degree from Fudan University. He once worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Hansung University of South Korea and Osaka University of Japan. In June 2000, he joined the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2003, he was supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and in 2006, he received special government allowances from the State Council. In 2017, he was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and in 2019, he was elected as a member of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. He is also Executive Director of the Chinese Physical Society, Director of the Division of Gravitation and Relativistic Astrophysics of the Chinese Physical Society, a council member of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation, Vice President of the Astrophysics, Gravity and Cosmology Division of the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies, and President of the BRICS Association of Gravity Astrophysics and Cosmology. He is Chief Scientist of the National Natural Science Foundation of China's major project "Research on Gravitational Wave Related Physical Problems" and the head of the Innovative Group Project of "Particle Physics and Cosmology". His main research fields are gravitational theory and cosmology, and he has published more than 240 papers, which have been cited more than 12,000 times.

He won the second prize of the State Natural Science Award and was listed as the "Global Highly Cited Researchers" by Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters).