Dr. Yukyan Lam is Research Director and Senior Scientist at the Tishman Center, where she leads the center's portfolio of climate and environmental justice research, policy, and technical assistance. Her work investigates legacy and emerging environmental justice threats, addresses policy challenges at the local, state, and national levels, and draws on close collaboration with movement leaders and community-based organizations. 

Recent publications and technical assistance led by Dr. Lam have focused on topics such as cumulative impacts, carbon capture and sequestration, power sector climate mitigation policy, regional climate resilience, and energy justice. She has developed long-term partnerships with environmental justice groups across various geographic regions, particularly in the Northeast, Midwest, and in California, where she is now based. She also works closely with national coalitions like the Platform for a Just Climate, and has served since 2023 on the Health Effects Institute’s Advisory Council on Community Health and Environmental Research Initiatives. 

Dr. Lam's experience also includes research and advocacy on human rights, health, and environmental challenges in Latin America and Bangladesh. Her expertise draws on law, policy, public health, spatial analysis, community-based science, and qualitative research methods. She holds a BS in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.