MIT Professor Killed in His Massachusetts Home

(Patria) - A University of Massachusetts professor who was shot in his home has died, university officials said, BBC reported last night.

Nuno F. Gomes Loureiro (47), a professor of nuclear science and engineering from Portugal, was shot "multiple times" on Monday and died on Tuesday morning in the hospital, according to Brookline police and officials from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Police said officers responded to a report of a shooting at an apartment around 8:30 p.m. local time. Loureiro was transported by ambulance to a Boston hospital, where he died on Tuesday morning.

No one is in custody, and police are treating the incident as an "active and ongoing homicide investigation," the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office said.

CBS News reported that a neighbor said they heard "three loud bangs" on Monday evening and thought someone in the apartment building was banging on a door.

Loureiro graduated with a degree in physics from Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon in 2000 and earned a PhD in physics from Imperial College London in 2005, according to his department's website.

A theoretical physicist and fusion scientist, he was known for his award-winning research on the dynamics of magnetized plasma. The dynamics of magnetized plasma is the study of a state of matter in which the motion of charged particles is affected by the presence of an external magnetic field, according to the journal Nature.

Loureiro joined the MIT faculty in 2016 and was named director of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2024.

His research addressed "complex problems lurking at the heart of fusion vacuum chambers and at the edges of the universe," according to the university's obituary.

He also studied how to harness clean "fusion energy" to combat climate change, CBS reported.

"Our deepest condolences are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those mourning," an MIT spokesperson said in a statement provided to the BBC.
The university added that "focused conversations and activities" were being held within the MIT community to offer care and support to those who knew the professor.

The center's previous director, Dennis Whyte, described Loureiro as a brilliant scientist and a brilliant person.

"He shone as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague, and leader, and was universally adored for his articulate and compassionate manner," Whyte told MIT News.

Deepto Chakrabarty, head of MIT's physics department, echoed these words and said Loureiro was a champion of plasma physics and that his recent research was "a particularly exciting new scientific direction."