Prominent US physicist and clean energy researcher fatally shot in Massachusetts

A homicide investigation has been launched after a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was shot and killed at his home near Boston, authorities confirmed on December 16.

Nuno F. G. Loureiro, a 47-year-old physicist and fusion energy researcher, was shot late Monday night at his residence in Brookline, per CNN.

He was transported to a local hospital, where he died on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said that as of Tuesday afternoon, no suspects had been arrested and the investigation remains ongoing.

Loureiro joined MIT in 2016 and was appointed last year to lead the institution’s Plasma Science and Fusion Centre. In that role, he focused on advancing fusion research and clean energy technologies. At the time he assumed leadership, the centre—one of MIT’s largest laboratories—employed more than 250 researchers and staff across seven buildings.

Originally from Viseu in central Portugal, Loureiro was married and completed his early studies in Lisbon before earning his doctorate in London, MIT said. Prior to moving to the United States, he worked as a researcher at a nuclear fusion institute in Lisbon.

The killing in Brookline comes amid heightened concern following a separate shooting incident in Providence, Rhode Island, where police are still searching for a gunman who killed two students and wounded nine others at Brown University over the weekend. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday it is aware of no link between the two cases.

A 22-year-old student at Boston University who lives near Loureiro’s apartment told The Boston Globe that she heard three loud sounds Monday evening and believed they were gunshots. “I had never heard anything so loud, so I assumed they were gunshots,” Liv Schachner was quoted as saying. “It’s difficult to grasp. It just seems like it keeps happening.”

On Tuesday afternoon, several of Loureiro’s students gathered outside his apartment—located in a three-story brick building—to pay their respects, according to the Globe.

The US ambassador to Portugal, John J. Arrigo, also expressed condolences in an online message, praising Loureiro’s leadership and scientific contributions.

When he was appointed to head MIT’s plasma science laboratory last year, Loureiro spoke of the broader mission of his work, saying, “It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems. Fusion energy will change the course of human history.”

By Tamilla Hasanova