Nicholas Lam Faculty Profile

Dr. Nicholas Lam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health at California State University, East Bay. His research interests lie at the boundaries of health, climate, and energy with a particular focus on resource-limited settings. His research examines the health and welfare impacts of current and future energy practices within homes and businesses, and strategies for developing energy infrastructure to improve access to resilient health services. Through this work, he seeks to understand how energy-related burdens, benefits, and needs are distributed across people and places to inform more equitable health and climate policies. Dr. Lam employs mixed methods study designs within desk and field research, to work towards developing a mechanistic representation of the relationships between human health, climate, and energy. This has included field studies in over a dozen countries and research on the energy requirements of homes and businesses, air quality and exposure assessment, emissions testing, technology adoption, and the economic and climate benefits of renewable energy transitions. Dr. Lam often works in collaboration with health and renewable energy practitioners, often through the development of analytical tools aimed at promoting cross-sectoral dialogue and informed decision making. He holds an affiliate Research Scientist position at the Schatz Energy Research Center at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. 

Prior to joining CSU East Bay, Dr. Lam served as a topic co-lead for the Off-Grid Energy Access topic area at the Schatz Energy Research Center. He was postdoctoral research scholar in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned his PhD. in Environmental Health Sciences with concentrations in Epidemiology and Development Economics, and a M.S. in Global Health and Environment, both from the University of California, Berkeley.