On November 1, 1991, University of Iowa in Iowa City became the site of a premeditated campus shooting carried out by 28‑year‑old former physics graduate student Gang Lu. The rampage began during a theoretical plasma physics meeting held on the third floor of Van Allen Hall. A few minutes into the meeting, Lu retrieved a .38-caliber revolver and opened fire, killing three members of his dissertation committee. He then proceeded to the second floor and shot department chairman Dwight R. Nicholson in his office.
After Van Allen Hall, Lu walked a few blocks to Jessup Hall. There, he entered the office of T. Anne Cleary, the associate vice president for academic affairs and university grievance officer, whom he perceived as blocking his academic recognition. He shot her in the head; she died the next day. He also shot and paralyzed a temporary student employee, Miya Rodolfo‑Sioson—who survived but remained paralyzed. When police entered Lu’s location shortly thereafter, they found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Five people were killed and one seriously injured, making this one of the deadliest academic-targeted shootings of that era. Lu had recently earned his PhD but was enraged that he had not received the prestigious D.C. Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize—an award he believed could have secured him postdoctoral placement and helped him avoid returning to China. In the months before the attack, he wrote multiple farewell letters to media outlets and family members, detailing perceived academic betrayals and grievances.
Lu was known to be socially isolated and prone to emotional outbursts when challenged. His colleagues described him as a brilliant but increasingly unstable presence in the department. The shootings unfolded in under ten minutes and ended with his suicide. Investigators found no sign that he had intended to target anyone beyond his professors and university staff.
The University of Iowa shooting highlighted how academic pressure, perceived injustice, and untreated resentment can escalate into fatal violence. Gang Lu turned grievance over academic decisions into a deadly vendetta. The attack forever altered the campus and marked an early turning point in understanding student-on-academic violence.
Articles:
Covering a tragedy: the UI’s 1991 shooting
Nov. 1, 1991: Memories of deadly day on University of Iowa campus haunt survivors
‘Cowboy Justice’: A first-hand account of the deadly 1991 UI campus shooting, 30 years later
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