Gu began attending Tsinghua University in 1965, where he studied at the Department of Engineering Physics till 1970.
After graduation, he taught at the Department of Engineering Physics at Tsinghua University while pursuing postgraduate studies.
During his time as an associate professor, he worked as a senior visiting scholar at the University of Notre Dame from 1986 to 1987.
In 2012, he stepped down from the president position, and became the director of Tsinghua University's Institute for Advanced Study.
[1][2] Gu was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999, while he was working as the chairman of the Department of Physics at Tsinghua university, and was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in 2010, while he was the President of Tsinghua University.