Stephen Lam

Research Interests

Nuclear materials, advanced reactors, materials chemistry, atomistic simulation, multi-scale modeling, machine learning, energy storage and conversion.

My research group focuses on combining multi-scale chemical simulation, informed experiments, and advanced data analytics for the purpose of understanding chemical structure, reactions and property relationships. This includes the development of new computational tools to improve fundamental understanding of material properties, increase the prediction accuracy of simulations, and accelerate materials screening and discovery.

1. supporting the development of energy technologies using high heat capacity ionic liquids including solar thermal storage, advanced fission reactors and fusion reactors,
2. understanding corrosion processes in nuclear systems,
3. predicting engineering properties and thermochemistry from first principles,
4. applying machine learning methods to improve and accelerate modeling and simulation methods (e.g. interatomic potentials, image processing, etc.).

Education

• Ph.D.: Nuclear Science and Engineering, (2020), Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA
• MS: Nuclear Science and Engineering, (2017), Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA
• BS: Chemical Engineering, (2013), University of British Columbia - Vancouver, Canada

Biosketch

Stephen Lam is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering. His research focuses on accelerating the development of materials for nuclear and other energy applications. Prior to joining UMass Lowell, Lam worked in the petroleum and chemical processing industries.

Selected Awards and Honors

• Early Career Research Award (2024), U.S. Department of Energy
• Distinguished Faculty Advancement Award (2024), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
• Best Presentation (2017), Scholarship/Research - Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Postgraduate Scholarship for Doctoral Research (2017), Scholarship/Research - Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• Best Poster (2016), Scholarship/Research - Oak Ridge National Laboratory Molten Salt Reactor Workshop
• Best Presentation in Molten Salt Reactors (2016), Scholarship/Research - American Nuclear Society
• Canada Engineering Scholarship (2013), Scholarship/Research - Total E&P
• MacKenzie Swan Memorial Scholarship (2013), Scholarship/Research - University of British Columbia
• Sherman Chen Scholarship in Chemical Engineering (2011), Scholarship/Research - University of British Columbia

Selected Publications

• Li, Q., Sprouster, D., Zheng, G., Neuefeind, J., Braatz, A., Mcfarlane, J., Olds, D., Lam, S., Li, J., Khaykovich, B. (2020). The Complex Structure of Molten NaCl-CrCl3 salt: Cr-Cl Octahedra Network and Intermediate-Range Order. ChemRxiv, (https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.12971966.v1).
• Wu, H., Gakhar, R., Chen, A., Lam, S., Marshall, C., Scarlat, R. (2020). Comparative analysis of microstructure and reactive sites for nuclear graphite IG-110 and graphite matrix A3. Journal of Nuclear Materials, 528(151802).
• Forsberg, C., Zheng, G., Ballinger, R., Lam, S. (2019). Fusion Blankets and Fluoride-Salt-Cooled High-temperature Reactors with Flibe Salt Coolant: Common Challenges, Tritium Control, and Opportunities for Synergistic Development Strategies Between Fission, Fusion and Solar Salt Technologies. Nuclear Technology, (Technical Papers – Selected papers from FHRs ).
• Zohuri, B., Lam, S., Forsberg, C. (2019). Heat-Pipe Heat Exchangers for Salt-Cooled Fission and Fusion Reactors to Avoid Salt Freezing and Control Tritium: A Review. Nuclear Technology, (Critical Reviews – Selected papers from FHRs).
• Mailoa, J., Kornbluth, M., Batzner, S., Samsonidze, G., Lam, S., Albitt, C., Molinari, N., Kozinsky, B. (2019). A fast neural network approach for direct covariant forces prediction in complex multi-element extended systems. Nature Machine Intelligence, 1 471-479.
• Lam, S., Dolan, K., Liu, W., Ballinger, R., Forsberg, C. (2019). Weak and strong hydrogen interactions on porous carbon materials in high-temperature systems. Journal of Nuclear Materials, 519 173-181.
• Lam, S., Ballinger, R., Forsberg, C. (2018). Modeling and predicting total hydrogen adsorption in nanoporous carbon materials for advanced nuclear systems. Journal of Nuclear Materials, 511 328-340.
• Zhang, J., Forsberg, C., Simpson, M., Guo, S., Lam, S., Scarlat, R., Carotti, F., Chan, K., Singh, P., Doniger, W., Sridharan, K., Keiser, J. (2018). Redox potential control in molten salt systems for corrosion mitigation. Corrosion Science, 144 44-53.
• Cao, J., Zhang, L., Xie, F., Xia, B., Lam, S. (2017). Source Term Study on Tritium in HTR-PM: Theoretical Calculations and Experimental Design. Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations, 2017(3586723).
• Forsberg, C., Lam, S., Carpenter, D., Whyte, D., Scarlat, R., Contescu, C., Wei, L., Stempien, J., Blandford, E. (2017). Tritium Control and Capture in Salt-Cooled Fission and Fusion Reactors: Status, Challenges, and Path Forward. Nuclear Technology, 197(2) 119-139.