A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, widely respected for his work in plasma physics and fusion energy, was fatally shot in his home in the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts, authorities said this week, in a killing that has stunned the academic community and remains under investigation.
The professor, Nuno F. G. Loureiro, 47, was found late Monday night at his residence with gunshot wounds. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead early Tuesday, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office. No arrests have been announced, and prosecutors said the homicide investigation was ongoing.
At the MIT Alumni Forum, Professor Nuno F. G. Loureiro shared groundbreaking research from the @MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center: https://t.co/qa95fCcM37 pic.twitter.com/aaESXlt9F7
— MIT Alumni (@MIT_alumni) December 18, 2024
Law enforcement officials said they had examined whether the killing could be connected to a separate mass shooting at Brown University over the weekend, but a senior official briefed on both cases said there was no indication the incidents were related. The FBI echoed that assessment.
Dr. Loureiro, a native of Portugal, joined the MIT faculty in 2016 and rose quickly through the ranks, becoming director of the university’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2024. The center, one of MIT’s largest research laboratories, employs more than 250 scientists, engineers, and students working on the development of fusion energy and related technologies.
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In a statement, MIT’s president Sally Kornbluth described Dr. Loureiro as an “imaginative scholar, gifted administrator, and enthusiastic mentor,” calling his death a “shocking loss” for the university. “Our hearts go out to his wife and family, and to his many devoted students, friends, and colleagues,” she said.
Dr. Loureiro grew up in central Portugal and studied physics in Lisbon before earning a doctorate at Imperial College London. He conducted research at leading fusion laboratories in the United States, Britain, and Portugal before arriving at MIT. His work focused on magnetic reconnection and plasma turbulence, and he published widely in scientific journals. In January 2025, he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
Students and colleagues gathered quietly near his home on Tuesday to pay their respects, local news outlets reported. The U.S. ambassador to Portugal, John J. Arrigo, also issued a statement honoring Dr. Loureiro’s leadership and contributions to science.
“It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems,” Dr. Loureiro said last year when he was named to lead the plasma science center. “Fusion energy will change the course of human history.”
