In August 1917, the Lu brothers were in Tokyo to greet a group of Nankai alumni on their way to Grinnell: Nankai President Zhang Boling led his former students Kuang Chao Lee, Feng Tsai, Fan Yi Kung, Wen Chien Feng, and Ngai Chen Shih, the first female Chinese student who attended Grinnell College. 

Lu attended Grinnell for four years (1920-1924). While on campus, he quickly became a favorite student of his biology professors. In the summer of 1923, he joined Professors H. S. Conard and H. W. Norris to do research at Lake Okoboji for six weeks (GH 06/19/1923), living out his own estimation that “the youth of China are becoming ambitious to achieve an education” (GH 04/30/1920). Lu also participated in activities organized by Chinese students on campus. In October 1922, for example, the Chinese students put on a program in the Alumni Recitation Hall auditorium to celebrate the founding of the Republic of China. Lu directed a pantomime show titled “Past and Future”; other actors included C. T. Chao, J. P. Shen, C. M. Chang, and S.Y. Liu. Lu also helped in the highly successful fund-raising dinner for Grinnell-in-China held in the local Congregational church in November 1922. He sat on the committee that was responsible for the menu, which was chaired by Ke Chang Hsu and included C.C. Ma, T. H. Cheng, and C.M Chang (SB 11/15/1922). He also celebrated the lunar new year with other Chinese students in February 1924 (SB 02/06/1924). 

Lu graduated from Grinnell in 1924 with a bachelor’s degree in botany and zoology and returned to China the same year (GH 06/17/1924). From 1925 to 1928, he taught in the biology department of Yen Ching University in Beijing. In 1930 he taught at the Medical School of Yale-in-China in Changsha, Hunan province. Later he also taught at Peking University and Hebei University. Lu was a highly regarded biologist in China. His book Gaodeng zhiwu fenleixue (Advanced Plant Taxonomy), first published in 1934, was reprinted repeatedly up to 1949. Standing at 388 pages and including Chinese and English indexes, it was regarded as the best college textbook at the time (ScienceNet). 

However, Lu was persecuted as an “anti-revolutionary expert” during China’s chaotic Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and most likely passed away in the late 1960s or the 1970s.