Luhua Lai graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Peking University in 1984. She received a master's degree from the Department of Chemistry of Peking University in 1987 and received a doctorate degree from the Department of Chemistry of Peking University in 1989. From 1998 to 1999, she was a Berkeley Scholar in the Department of Chemistry of the University of California, Berkeley. From 1992 to the present, she has been a professor at the School of Chemistry of Peking University. From 2001 to the present, she has been a Changjiang Distinguished Professor at the School of Chemistry of Peking University. She is currently the Director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Deputy Director of the Center for Quantitative Biology of Peking University, and a member of the Peking University-Tsinghua University Joint Center for Life Sciences.