A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was shot dead at his home near Boston on Monday night, and his death is being investigated as a homicide, officials said.
Nuno Loureiro, 47, from Portugal, was pronounced dead Tuesday morning after being found at his Brookline home. He was a physicist and fusion scientist.
“This is an active and ongoing homicide investigation,” the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said.
“Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” MIT said in a statement.
“This shocking loss for our community comes in a period of disturbing violence in many other places,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in a statement, adding that support was available for staff and students.
MIT said its police department is assisting in the investigation, which is being led by Massachusetts State Police. The university, citing the investigation, said it would not have further comment.
U.S. Ambassador to Portugal John J. Arrigo offered his “deepest condolences” to Loureiro’s family, friends and colleagues. “We honor his life, his leadership in science, and his enduring contributions,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
Loureiro was born and raised in a small city in central Portugal and studied in Lisbon and London where he gained a PhD in physics from Imperial College.
He joined MIT in 2016. Before that, he was a researcher at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion at IST Lisbon, MIT said.
Loureiro’s research interests were “theory and computational simulation of nonlinear plasma dynamics,” according to his MIT bio.
He was a professor in MIT’s department of nuclear science and engineering and the department of physics and was also director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the university said.
Speaking to MIT News in 2018, he said of leading the Plasma Science and Fusion Center: “It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems. Fusion is a hard problem, but it can be solved with resolve and ingenuity – characteristics that define MIT. Fusion energy will change the course of human history. It’s both humbling and exciting to be leading a research center that will play a key role in enabling that change.”
Patrick Smith contributed.
