Authorities in Massachusetts are investigating the fatal shooting of a prominent Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist whose death has stunned colleagues, neighbors, and students across the region.
Nuno F. G. Loureiro, 47, was shot inside his Brookline apartment on Monday night, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office. Brookline police received reports of a man wounded in the entryway of the building that night. Officers found Loureiro with life-threatening injuries and notified prosecutors. He was transported to a Boston-area hospital and died Tuesday morning. Authorities later confirmed the case is being investigated as a homicide.
On Tuesday, authorities reported that no suspects had been taken into custody and released no details about a possible motive. Brookline Police Chief Jennifer Paster urged residents to remain patient as detectives continued their work, adding that investigators would be using “dedicated patrol cars, officers, and unmarked units in the Gibbs Street neighborhood” while searching for clues. “This remains an active and ongoing homicide investigation,” Paster said in a public statement.
The shooting shook the quiet residential block, where many students and faculty live. One upstairs neighbor, Louise Cohen, told The Boston Globe she heard multiple gunshots around 8:30 p.m. Monday while lighting a menorah candle. She saw Loureiro lying near the entrance. “I can’t sleep now,” she said. “This family is amazing. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to kill him.”
The killing also raised immediate questions about whether it might be connected to another high-profile shooting roughly 50 miles away at Brown University, where two students were killed and nine others wounded during a study session last weekend. But FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said Tuesday there was “no connection” between the crimes.
As investigators worked the scene, neighbors, friends, and students began holding informal vigils outside Loureiro’s home. By Tuesday night, about two dozen mourners gathered with candles, hugging one another in silence. Several local teens told reporters they had known Loureiro for years, recalling him as a patient, generous parent who frequently drove his daughter and her friends to karate classes. “He was always very welcoming,” one Brookline High School student said. “He was very inviting… just a great guy, very respectful, very nice.”
Another neighbor, Eurydice Hirsey, said she knew the professor through Loureiro’s wife, Ines, and described the family as close-knit and active in community programs. “It’s a family feeling, such raw horror…terror,” she said. Her husband added, “The only answer to terrorism is a strong civil society.”
MIT leaders released statements throughout the day expressing sorrow over the loss of the internationally recognized fusion scientist. “Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” spokesperson Kimberly Allen said. The university said it activated counseling teams to support members of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, one of MIT’s largest research hubs, which Loureiro was appointed to lead in 2023.
Loureiro joined MIT in 2016 after postdoctoral work at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the UKAEA Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. He completed his doctorate at Imperial College London, following physics studies at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon. His research centers on computational modeling of nonlinear plasma dynamics, vital to developing commercially viable fusion energy.
In a 2018 interview with MIT News, Loureiro described fusion research as both demanding and hopeful. “It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems,” he said, adding that fusion energy “will change the course of human history.”
Portugal’s U.S. ambassador, John J. Arrigo, also issued condolences, calling Loureiro a scientist whose leadership “honored both nations” and whose contributions “will endure.”
Authorities have not released additional details, and the investigation remains ongoing.
