On a snowy afternoon in Iowa City on November 1, 1991, a tragic event unfolded at the University of Iowa that cut short the promising life of Dr. Linhua Shan, a 26-year-old male Asian postdoctoral research investigator. The day took a dark turn when a former graduate student, Gang Lu, 28, opened fire during a physics and astronomy department meeting in Van Allen Hall. Dr.
Shan was one of the first victims in a meticulously planned attack born out of professional jealousy and resentment.
Dr. Shan, a native of the People's Republic of China, had recently earned his doctorate in physics from the university in May 1991. His dissertation on the structure of Saturn's ring system was highly regarded. He was a member of the theoretical space physics group and had a bright future ahead of him. However, his academic success became a fatal point of contention for Gang Lu, who had also received his Ph.D. in physics in May. Lu was reportedly enraged that his own dissertation had not been nominated for the prestigious D. C. Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize, which carried a $2,500 award. The prize was instead awarded to Linhua Shan, who had once been Lu's roommate.
On that fateful Friday afternoon, Lu attended the weekly graduate seminar in plasma physics. A few minutes into the meeting, he produced a. 38-caliber revolver and began shooting. His targets were specific: those he blamed for his perceived academic slights. He first shot Professor Christoph K. Goertz, his dissertation chairman, and then turned the gun on Dr. Shan, shooting him in the face. Lu also killed two other faculty members in the building: Professor Robert A. Smith and Dwight R. Nicholson, the department chairman.
After the shootings in Van Allen Hall, Lu walked to Jessup Hall, the university's administrative building. There, he shot and killed T. Anne Cleary, the associate vice president for academic affairs, with whom he had filed grievances. He also shot and seriously wounded Miya Rodolfo-Sioson, a student employee, who was left paralyzed. Following his rampage, Gang Lu was found in a classroom with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and died shortly after police arrived. There were no arrests to be made, as the sole suspect had taken his own life, leaving a trail of devastation and a university community in mourning. In letters he had written prior to the killings, Lu detailed his plans and his belief that he had been wronged by the university.
