Brooklyn, Massachusetts– An MIT professor was shot to death in his home near Boston, and authorities said Tuesday they had launched a homicide investigation.
Nuno F. J. LoureiroA 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist was shot and killed Monday night at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. He died at a local hospital on Tuesday, the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
The district attorney’s office said no suspects had been arrested as of Tuesday afternoon, and the investigation was continuing.
Loureiro, who joined MIT in 2016, was appointed last year to lead MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, where he aims to advance clean energy technology and other research. The center, one of the school’s largest laboratories, had more than 250 people working in seven buildings when he took the helm.
Loureiro, who was married, grew up in Viseu, central Portugal, and studied in Lisbon before earning his doctorate in London, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She added that he was a researcher at the Nuclear Fusion Institute in Lisbon before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader, and was universally admired for his clear and compassionate style,” Dennis White, an engineering professor who previously led MIT’s Center for Plasma and Fusion Science, told a university journal.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in a statement that Loureiro’s death was a “shocking loss.”
The Brooklyn murder investigation comes as police in Providence, Rhode Island, about 50 miles away, continue to search for The gunman who killed two students He infected nine others at Brown University on Saturday. The FBI said on Tuesday that it was not aware of a connection between the two crimes.
A 22-year-old student at Boston University who lives near Lourero’s apartment in Brooklyn told the Boston Globe that she heard three loud noises Monday evening and feared it was gunfire. “I never heard anything loud, so I assumed it was gunshots,” Liv Schachner was quoted as saying. “It’s hard to understand. It seems like it’s happening all the time.”
Some of Loureiro’s students visited his home, an apartment in a three-story building, on Tuesday afternoon to pay their respects, the Globe reported.
U.S. Ambassador to Portugal, John J. Arrigo, expressed his condolences in an online post honoring Loureiro for his leadership and contributions to science.
“It is no exaggeration to say that MIT is the place you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems.” Loureiro said When he was appointed to lead the Plasma Science Laboratory last year. “Fusion energy will change the course of human history.”