Fusion scientist Nuno Loureiro was fatally shot at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Monday night. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor died from his injuries at a local hospital on Tuesday.
Authorities announced yesterday that they have launched a homicide investigation into the death of the 47-year-old. The prosecutor's office stated that, as of Tuesday, no suspects had been taken into custody.
Nuno was the director of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center and a professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Physics. His work primarily focused on advancing clean energy technologies. Nuno was leading a team of 250 people in one of the university's largest laboratories.
A Boston University student, Liv Schachner, who lives near Loureiro's apartment in Brookline, told The Boston Globe she heard multiple loud noises on Monday evening. 'I had never heard anything so loud, so I assumed they were gunshots,' Schachner said. 'It's difficult to grasp. It just seems like it keeps happening.'
Loureiro Was a Pioneer
As a theoretical physicist, Loureiro's research interests ranged from magnetic confinement fusion to fundamental plasma physics and plasma astrophysics.
He received the 2015 Thomas Stix Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Plasma Physics from the American Physical Society. He was also an NSF Career Awardee and was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2022.
'He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader, and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner,' Dennis Whyte, former head of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, told a campus publication.
Loureiro, who was married, grew up in central Portugal and majored in physics at IST Lisbon before earning his PhD from Imperial College London in 2005. He completed post-doctoral research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in the UK.
Until 2015, he was a researcher at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion at IST Lisbon. He joined MIT as an assistant professor in 2016 and was promoted to full professor in 2021.
Loureiro also received the 2017 and 2020 ANS Faculty PAI Outstanding Professor awards, as well as the 2022 Ruth and Joel Spira Award for excellence in teaching.
'Nuno was a champion for plasma physics within the Physics Department, a wonderful and engaging colleague, and an inspiring and caring mentor for graduate students working in plasma science,' said Deepto Chakrabarty, the William A. M. Burden Professor in Astrophysics and head of the Department of Physics.
Social Media Rife with Conspiracies
Loureiro's death has sparked debates on social media platforms such as Reddit, with many suggesting he had foreign enemies, while some claimed he was from a Sephardic Jewish family.
Many are drawing parallels with the Bondi Beach incident, while others believe the incident may be related to the recent college shooting at Brown University's School of Engineering and Physics departments, which resulted in the deaths of two students. However, the FBI stated yesterday that it has yet to find any connection between these events.
The US ambassador to Portugal, John J. Arrigo, posted online that Loureiro was working in a field that could change the course of human history.
Gun violence remains a significant public safety concern, especially after several high-profile shootings this year alone.
