Professor J.  Lam received a BSc (1st Hons.) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manchester, an MPhil and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge. He is a Croucher Scholar, Croucher Fellow, Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and Cheung Kong Chair Professor. Prior to joining the University of Hong Kong in 1993 where he is now Chair Professor of Control Engineering, he was a faculty member at the City University of Hong Kong and the University of Melbourne. He is a recipient of the Second Class State Natural Science Award twice.

Professor Lam is a Chartered Mathematician (CMath), Chartered Scientist (CSci), Chartered Engineer (CEng), Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (FIEEE), Fellow of Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET), Fellow of Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications (FIMA), Fellow of Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE), and Fellow of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (FHKIE).

He is Editor-in-Chief of IET Control Theory and Applications, Journal of The Franklin Institute and Proc. IMechE Part I: Journal of Systems and Control Engineering. He also serves as Subject Editor of Journal of Sound and Vibration, Editor of Asian Journal of Control, Senior Editor of Cogent Engineering, Section Editor of IET Journal of Engineering, Consulting Editor of International Journal of Systems Science, Associate Editor of Automatica and Multidimensional Systems and Signal Processing.

His recent research interests include robust synthesis, delay, singular systems, stochastic systems, multi-agent systems, positive systems, networked control systems, and vibration control. He is a Highly Cited Researcher in Engineering (2014 to 2020), Computer Science (2015), and Cross-Field (2021).