After a short time in compulsory military service he joined ASEA, the Swedish electrical conglomerate, initially working in their training program.
[4][5] In 1943 Lamm obtained his Ph.D. from the Royal Institute of Technology, studying part-time while developing the mercury arc valve.
[6] In 1955 Lamm was made head of the ASEA project to develop Sweden's first commercial nuclear reactors.
In 1961 Lamm moved to California and was appointed by ASEA in 1961 to work with General Electric on the Pacific DC Intertie project, which combined AC and HVDC transmission systems to move electrical energy from the hydroelectric generators of the Pacific Northwest to consumers in southern California.
While describing this device at a lecture in the United States he also mentioned that the same principle could be applied to resistors, making a transistor.