Caltech Effective Altruism
Care a lot.Think it through.
We’re a student club for people who want to help others as much as they can, and want to be careful about how. Speakers, reading groups, and career workshops, all free.
What we run
Everything is free. Come to one thing, or all of them.
Speaker series
Researchers and practitioners on AI safety, global health, biosecurity, and policy, in person at Caltech.
AI safety reading group
Alignment, interpretability, and governance, for students who may want to work on them.
Intro reading group
The core ideas of effective altruism, read and argued over in small groups.
Career workshops
Research, internships, grad school, and jobs chosen with impact in mind.
Projects
Student-led research and service, shaped by what members want to build.
Causes we talk about
Members set the agenda. These are where conversations usually start, not where they have to end.
- 01
AI safety
Alignment, governance, and honest disagreement about timelines.
- 02
Global health
What works, what it costs, and the limits of the evidence.
- 03
Biosecurity
Pandemic preparedness, detection, and dual-use research.
- 04
Animal welfare
Farmed and wild animals, and which reforms are within reach.
- 05
Climate
Energy, adaptation, and leverage points others overlook.
- 06
Effective giving
How to give well when the evidence is uncertain.
- 07
Policy
How governments handle these problems, and careers in public service.
Three questions we keep asking
Effective altruism is a question more than an answer: with the time and money we have, how can we help the most? We start from three questions, often called scale, neglectedness, and tractability. None settles anything alone. A problem stands out when it is big, overlooked, and solvable at once.
- Scale
How big is it?
How many people or animals does the problem touch, how badly, and for how long? Some problems affect a town; others affect billions, or everyone who comes after us. Estimating carefully, instead of going by what’s in the news, often changes what looks urgent.
For example Malaria killed about 600,000 people in 2023, most of them children under five.
- Neglectedness
Who else is on it?
The first people and dollars in a field tend to do the most good; later ones fill smaller gaps. So we ask how much is already going in, and where one more person or dollar would change the most. A crowded field isn’t a bad one. The easy wins may just be taken.
For example Farmed animals are over 99% of the animals people use, yet they get only a few percent of what donors give to animal charities.
- Tractability
Can we make progress?
A huge, overlooked problem is still a poor bet if nothing we try works. We look for evidence that effort turns into results: trials, track records, a plausible path. Sometimes the honest answer is that we don’t know yet, and finding out is part of the work.
For example Smallpox killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century. In 1980 it was declared eradicated.
You don’t have to agree with any of this to come. Disagreeing well is half the point.
Run by students
Five officers elected under our constitution, plus a postdoc advisor. Email any of us.
- HariPresident
- ZachVice President
- EstherTreasurer
- YuboSecretary
- SeanResearcher
- Xi DengAdvisor
Recognized Caltech student club for 2026–27. Constitution adopted October 8, 2026.How the club is run
Come say hi
Discord is the quickest way in: every meeting gets posted there. Or leave your email and we’ll write when something’s on. Want to help organize? Say so in the form.
Questions? Email hasooris@caltech.edu
No pledge, no dues, no required worldview.