Cai Mingjie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cai was born in China. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from Stanford University in 1990, and worked for 16 years as a researcher at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology.[3] In May 2008, he was one of the first few Principal Investigators of the institute to be laid off. After several failed job applications, he chose to become a taxi driver in November 2008.[4][5] With the SG$77/day rent for his Toyota Crown, he said in September 2009 that his take-home pay comes out to between $30 and $50 per day.[6]
Cai began blogging about his experiences as a taxi driver, acquiring a large following of fans and even offers of employment.[6] In April 2010, he published a compilation of stories about his taxi driving.[7] A movie based on the book, Taxi! Taxi!, was released in Singapore in 2013.[8]
In 2010, Cai returned to China as Legal Representative and general manager of Hongye Innovative Antibody Technologies Co., Ltd.[9][10]
Selected publications
- Cai, Mingjie; Davis, Ronald W. (May 1990), "Yeast centromere binding protein CBF1, of the helix-loop-helix protein family, is required for chromosome stability and methionine prototrophy", Cell, 61 (3): 437–446, doi:10.1016/0092-8674(90)90525-J, PMID 2185892
- Cai, Mingjie, Diary of a taxi driver : true stories from Singapore's most educated cabdriver, Singapore: Aktive Learning, ISBN 978-981-08-5020-3