Dr Lam received his B.Sc.(Bioinformatics) and Ph.D. from The University of Hong Kong, and had postdoctoral training in Pennsylvania State University and University of Oxford. His main research interest is in the evolution, epidemiology and ecology of infectious diseases. Lam received the Novartis Vaccines Award for Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases from the International Society for Infectious Diseases in 2008, and the Newton Research Fellowship from the Royal Society UK in 2010.