Lu faced and overcame difficulty and challenge from a young age. Facing persecution during China's Cultural Revolution, his parents sent him from their Shanghai home to live with his grandfather in a tiny town in Jiangsu province, five hours away. Lu did not have access to electricity or plumbing, and was so poor that meat was a once-a-year luxury. His first two choices to escape poverty were closed off: His slight build left him short of government weight mandates for coveted shipbuilding jobs, and his eyesight was too poor to pass requirements for becoming a physicist.