Gang Lu (left). Miya Rodolfo-Sioson (right) who was shot and seriously injured by Lu during the "Gang Lu Massacre" on November 1, 1991 is evacuated from the crime scene by emergency workers.^[1]

Gang Lu (born in Beijing) (1963 - November 1, 1991 ) (surname Lu; Chinese: 卢刚 Lú Gāng) was a Chinese physics student enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Iowa. On Friday, November 1, 1991, using a .38 caliber revolver and also carrying a .22 caliber handgun, he shot five people to death, seriously wounded another, and then committed suicide in what is called the Gang Lu Massacre. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Beijing (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: BÄ›ijÄ«ng; IPA: ;  ), a metropolis in northern China, is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Physics (Greek: (phúsis), nature and (phusiké), knowledge of nature) is the science concerned with the discovery and characterization of universal laws which govern matter, energy, space, and time. ... The University of Iowa -- or Iowa for short -- is a major national research university located on a 1,900-acre campus in Iowa City, Iowa, USA, on the banks of the Iowa River in East Central Iowa. ... November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... rEVOLVEr (2004) is the fourth studio album release by Swedish thrash metal band The Haunted. ... A Browning 9 millimeter Hi-Power Ordnance pistol of the French Navy, 19th century, using a Percussion cap mechanism Derringers were small and easily hidden. ... Suicide (Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of intentionally taking ones own life. ...

The people he killed were Christoph K. Goertz (his advisor), Linhua Shan (a fellow PhD student from China), Dwight R. Nicholson (department chair), Robert Alan Smith (associate professor and Lu's co-advisor), and T. Anne Cleary (Vice President for Academic Affairs). A student employee, Miya Rodolfo-Sioson, was shot in her spine; this permanently paralyzed her arms and legs.

Months before, Gang Lu wrote five letters explaining the reasons for his planned actions. The university has these letters. According to university officials, four of the letters are in English and were intended to be sent to news organizations. One is in Chinese.

The real reasons for the tragedy are still unknown today because Lu's letters have not been released to the public. According to the university, Lu said in the letters that he was angry and jealous that his doctoral dissertation had not received a prestigious academic award. Linhua Shan had received the award.

Writer Jo Ann Beard later wrote an acclaimed personal essay based in part on the killings. The essay, called "The Fourth State of Matter," was originally published in The New Yorker, appeared in the 1997 edition of Best American Essays, and was later published in her collection of personal essays, The Boys of My Youth. Beard worked as an editor for a physics journal at the university and was a colleague of the victims, working closely with several of them. The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. ...

Based on Gang Lu's story, director Chen Shi-zheng made a feature film, "Dark Matter," starring Liu Ye and Meryl Streep. The film won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.^[2] Chen Shi-zheng (陈士爭) was born 1963 in Changsha, in Chinas Hunan province. ... Dark Matter is the first feature film by opera director Chen Shi-zheng, starring Liu Ye, Aidan Quinn and Meryl Streep. ... Liu Ye (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ) (born March 23, 1978) is a Chinese actor from Jilin province. ... Mary Louise Streep, mostly known as Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is a two-time Academy Award-winning, six-time Golden Globe-winning, two-time SAG-winning, Grammy Award-nominated and BAFTA Award-winning American actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. ... The Alfred P. Sloan Prize is an award given each year, starting in 2003, to a film at the Sundance Film Festival. ... The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival in the United States, and ranks alongside the Cannes, France, Venice, Italy, Berlin, Germany, and Toronto, Canada festivals as one of the most prestigious in the world. ...

See also

• Virginia Tech massacre

The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that unfolded as two attacks about two hours apart on April 16, 2007, on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. ...

Notes

Books

• Chen, Edwin (1995). Deadly Scholarship: The True Story of Lu Gang and Mass Murder in America's Heartland. Carol Publishing Corporation. ISBN 155972241X. 

Web

• Beard, Jo Ann (1997). The Fourth State of Matter. The Boys of My Youth. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
• Eckhardt, Megan L. (November 1, 2001). 10 years later, U. Iowa remembers fatal day. The Daily Iowan. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
• Efrati, Amir (November 1, 2002). Recalling a snowy, blustery November day. The Daily Iowan (dailyiowan.com). Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
• Grabbe, Crockett (November 2, 1999). A Tree of Legacies: The UI Murders 5 Years Later. crockett-grabbe@uiowa.edu. Retrieved on 2006-07-25.
• Marriott, Michel (November 3, 1991). Gunman in Iowa Wrote of Plans In Five Letters. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-07-25.
• Marriott, Michel (November 4, 1991). Iowa Gunman Was Torn by Academic Challenge. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-07-25.
• Overbye, Dennis (March 27, 2007). A Tale of Power and Intrigue in the Lab, Based on Real Life. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.