Lu Zheng joined the Merage School faculty in September 2006. Previously, she served as assistant professor of finance from 1999 to 2006 and was approved for promotion to associate professor with tenure in May 2006 at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. Her research covers many aspects of investments, including equity markets, mutual funds, hedge funds, investor behavior and expectations, and institutional trading.

Zheng has published papers in The Journal of Finance, The Review of Financial Studies, The Journal of Business, and The Journal of Empirical Finance. Two of her papers have been nominated for the Smith Breeden award for the best paper in The Journal of Finance. She has made many presentations at academic seminars and conferences, for example, the American Finance Association meetings, the Western Finance Association meetings, and the European Finance Association meetings. She has refereed for nearly 20 academic journals and has been interviewed extensively by print and electronic media, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Economist, BusinessWeek, CBS and National Public Radio.

She belongs to the Phi Beta Kappa National Society. She received her bachelor's degree from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta and her PhD in finance from Yale University.