On a quiet, snowy Friday, November 1, 1991, the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City was shattered by an act of violence that claimed the life of 44-year-old White male, Dwight R. Nicholson. A professor and the chairman of the Physics and Astronomy Department, Nicholson was one of five people killed by Gang Lu, a 28-year-old former graduate student.
The tragic events began to unfold in the late afternoon in Van Allen Hall. Lu, who had received his Ph.D.
from the university months earlier, was reportedly embittered over not being nominated for a prestigious academic award, the Spriestersbach prize. He attended a meeting of the theoretical space plasma physics research group and, shortly after it began, opened fire.
In this initial attack, Lu shot and killed three individuals: Christoph K. Goertz, a professor on Lu's dissertation committee; Robert A. Smith, another professor on his committee; and Linhua Shan, the postdoctoral researcher who had won the award Lu coveted. Following this, Lu made his way to Dwight Nicholson's office, where he shot and killed the department chairman. Nicholson was also a member of Lu's dissertation committee. The assailant then walked to Jessup Hall, another building on campus, where he shot and killed T. Anne Cleary, an associate vice president for Academic Affairs who had handled Lu's grievances, and wounded a student worker.
The perpetrator, Gang Lu, was the sole suspect in the shootings. After his rampage, he took his own life. Law enforcement officials found that Lu had written letters to news organizations and acquaintances prior to the attack, outlining his intentions and grievances against the university and the individuals he targeted. The investigation concluded that Lu acted alone, and no other arrests were made in connection with the tragic event that left the university community in a state of profound shock and sorrow.
