Harvey Lam, the Edwin S. Wilsey Professor Emeritus of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton, died Oct. 29, 2018, at the age of 87.

Born in Macao, Lam graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1954. He earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from Princeton in 1957 and 1958, respectively. He joined the Princeton faculty in 1960 and retired in 1999 as Wilsey professor emeritus.

From 1980 to 1981 Lam was associate dean of engineering, and from 1983 to 1989 he was chair of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department. From 1983 to 1986 he was also co-chair of Princeton’s Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics.

Lam applied mathematics and computation to improve understanding of fluid mechanics, aerospace propulsion, plasma physics, and other areas.

He is survived by his wife, Patsy; four children (including Karen ’84); three grandchildren (including Alex ’19); and a niece, Eva Lerner-Lam ’76. The University flag was flown at half-staff in his memory.

Graduate memorials are written by the APGA.

Graduate Class of 1958