Hang Lu

Hang Lu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan. His primary research focuses on examining the dynamic role that emotions play in influencing environmental, health, science, and risk communication. In particular, he studies emotions as persuasive appeals, dynamic processes and situational cues with a recent focus on the experience of multiple emotions. He has developed his work within specific contexts, such as vaccination, drug overuse, obesity, climate change, pollution, genetically modified food, emerging technologies, infectious diseases, and human-wildlife conflicts. His research has been published in a number of peer reviewed journals, including Journal of Environmental Psychology, Risk Analysis, Renewable Energy, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Climatic Change, Public Understanding of Science, Science Communication, Appetite, and Health Communication. His research has received multiple awards from the International Communication Association, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Society for Risk Analysis.

Lu teaches an undergraduate capstone, Media and Emotion, in the winter term of 2022.

Lu directs the Media and Risk (MaR) lab at the University of Michigan.

Prior to joining the University of Michigan in the fall of 2019, Lu was the Gloria T. and Melvin J. “Jack” Chisum Postdoctoral Fellow in Science of Science Communication at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.