PhD
holder now a taxi driver
By Amresh Gunasingham from Straits
Times
COULD this be
Singapore’s most well qualified taxi driver?
Dr Cai Ming Jie
became an SMRT cabby last November after spending 16 years as a
researcher at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) of
the Agency for Science, Technology and Research
(A*Star).
His career switch
has become a talking point online after he started a blog earlier
this year. Alongside his experiences as a cabby, he takes issue
with the circumstances of his departure from IMCB last
May.
An SMRT spokesman
confirmed that the former researcher is a driver with
SMRT Taxis, but Dr
Cai declined to add more beyond this: ‘All that needs to be said is
on the blog online…It should be IMCB that needs to be asked
questions, if any.’
The China-born Dr
Cai, who became a Singapore citizen, obtained a PhD in molecular
biology from Stanford University in 1990.
The Straits Times
learnt that he did a two-year postdoctoral fellowship after leaving
Stanford at the University of Washington, under famed genetist
Professor Lee Hartwell, who won a 2001 Nobel Prize in
physiology.
He joined IMCB two
years later and worked as a principal investigator in the field of
cell genetics up till his departure.
A spokesman for
A*Star, meanwhile, said renewal of all its researchers’ contracts
is based on a number of factors, including the time taken to train
PhD students, their performance and their contributions to the
research institutes and the agency in general.
Dr Cai’s work, like
that of all A*Star researchers, was assessed by an external
Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), which recommended his contract be
terminated.
The spokesman said
IMCB had taken the additional step of having Dr Cai’s work assessed
by three independent experts, ‘all of whom supported the SAB’s
decision not to renew his contract’.
He said the former
researcher was given one year’s notice as well as advice and
assistance to source for other prospects.
Still, in spite of
the submission of countless curriculum vitaes and applications to
universities, government agencies and companies since he was told
he would be let go in 2007, Dr Cai failed to get a successful
response.
Former colleagues
feel his departure was unfortunate and a consequence of many
factors. Having known him over the years, they say he is a reserved
but bright scientist.
Dr Cai was also an
adjunct associate professor at the National University of
Singapore’s (NUS’) biochemistry department, where he supervised
students doing research in cell and molecular biology. This
appointment ended last year, an NUS spokesman said.
The former
researcher now drives a four-year -old Toyota Crown. ‘At a time
like this, the taxi business is probably the only business in
Singapore that still actively recruits people,’ he said.
In his latest entry,
dated Monday, he revealed that he will focus on writing when his
six-month contract at SMRT Taxis expires at the end of the
month.
‘After that, I plan
to change to a new taxi operator…and continue driving and writing
stories that come along with it.’
Source:
Straits
Times
My point is can "they" help
us.
