Dr Carlos Lam

Dr Carlos Lam
BEng (Hons) in Civil & Environmental Engineering (Graduate of 2001)

To this day, I still remember what happened at my admissions interview in the early summer of 1998. (I was a non-JUPAS applicant applying with GCE A-levels; hence the requirement.) The two interviewers were, as I found out a few months later, Dr C S Poon and Dr H K Lam (both later became professors, of course). Dr Poon did most of the questioning in the interview. I still remember him asking me about my predicted grades and telling me that I would be admitted if I had attained those grades after the exams. Of course, I got in and both interviewers later became my subject teachers. It was in Dr Poon’s lecture on environmental science that I first heard the concept of sustainability, and it was Dr Lam who taught us the value of time (opportunity cost) in transport planning.

Fast forward to the summer of 2001: I graduated from PolyU and went to work for the main contractor that was building the Tuen Mun Station. There, I was exposed to the real world of construction and realised that a university degree was just an “entry ticket” to the industry. As an early twenty-something, I was hungry for professional knowledge and also wanted to see the outside world. With that in mind, I quitted my job a year later and moved to the UK, where I spent some of my best years. By the time I left the UK 12 years later, I had completed two further postgraduate degrees, was married with two children, and was working as a lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Manchester. I have many fond memories of my career in the UK – winning a national science photography competition, lecturing at The Institution of Civil Engineers’ headquarters in London, and publishing a technical book on my academic research, just to name a few.

My desire for new challenges eventually led me back to Hong Kong to join the Civil Engineering and Development Department in 2014. I now work in the Landslip Investigation Section of the Geotechnical Engineering Office.  The heavy rainfall in September last year caused many landslides with high consequences, and our team has been busy investigating the most notable failures (e.g. those at Yiu Hing Road and Shek O Road) to find out their contributing factors and failure mechanisms, with the ultimate aim of improving slope safety in Hong Kong. This has been a very challenging but rewarding job.

As a former academic, I have maintained a strong interest in technical development since returning to Hong Kong and have been fortunate enough to receive several awards for my research in recent years.  A highlight was the Construction Industry Council (CIC) Innovation Award 2015 ceremony at the Government House, where I found myself standing on the stage with Prof C S Poon as he was also one of the award winners.  I hope I have made him proud.

Recently, I was invited to attend an industry networking event at CEE and met some current final-year students. I learnt that they are facing the same issues that I did at their age – deciding between further study and a career in the industry, securing the “ideal” job with the best training opportunities, etc.  May I take this opportunity to urge you, fellow CEE alumni, to visit your alma mater (e.g. by attending alumni events) and offer your help to the current students, whether it be an internship opportunity or just a casual chat, as this could be life-changing for them. I am sure that, like me, you will be amazed at how much the Department has changed for the better and how energetic the students are, just as we were in the old days. 

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the current and former members of CEE for creating such an excellent learning environment for our younger generations.