Graduated at the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris, in 1816 he took part in some student riots at the school. He joined the faculty of the Institute of the Corps of Engineers in Russia as reinforcement in 1821, taking charge of the unified chair of mechanics, mathematics and physics.

A follower of the liberal theories of Saint-Simon, in addition to teaching engineering at the Institute he participated in the calculations of the stability of the Dome of St. Isaac (1823) and of the Column of Alexander. From his experiences in Russia he made his great contribution to the theory of elasticity, his fundamental memoir Sur l’equilibre intérieur des corps solides homogènes bodies), which was developed with Clapeyron and presented to the French Academy of Sciences. Among his contributions, we must also note the introduction of confocal quadrics in geometry. For a decade (1820 - 1830) he served in Russia, until his liberal ideas forced him to leave the country.

Lamé returned to Paris and was part of an engineering company established jointly with Clapeyron. A few months later, still in 1832, Lamé accepted the chair of physics at the Ecole Polytechnique. In 1836 he was appointed chief engineer of mines, participating in the construction of the railroad that goes from Paris to Versailles and of the railway from Paris to St. Germain, which opened in 1837.

After the death of Louis Puissant, Lamé was elected to the Académie des Sciences in 1843, filling the vacancy in Geometry that Puissant had left. The following year he left his chair of physics at the Ecole Polytechnique and accepted a position at the Sorbonne, where he was responsible for the specialties of mathematical physics and probability.