[1][2] From 1988 to 1990, Alam was a senior research scientist at Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences.
Alam was an assistant director of Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center (MarBEC) at University of Hawaiʻi.
In 1992, Alam joined the department of Microbiology at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa as an assistant professor.
He was also the Director of Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics at University of Hawaii, Manoa from 2003 until his death.
[2] In 2011, Alam became a member of advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Sylhet.
In 2003, Alam set up the Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics (ASGPB) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa.
Consolidating the DNA sequencing framework of ASGPB with the bioinformatic assets at the Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC), he ran a Computational Proteomics program that ranged from wet lab research to in silico informatics.
[2] Alam and his team completed the genome sequencing of Idiomarina loihiensis,[3] an ancient organism found in the hydrothermal vents of Kamaʻehuakanaloa (formerly Loihi) during a University of Hawaiʻi expedition in 2003.