A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor was shot at his home on Monday night. MIT authorities confirmed that the professor succumbed to injuries shortly after. Nuno Loureiro was fatally shot near his home in Brookline, near Boston. A student of Boston University, who lives near the professor's residence, heard three loud gunfire shots, after which the professor was rushed to a Boston hospital, where he breathed his last on Tuesday morning, BBC reported.
Who was Professor Nuno Loureiro?
Professor Nuno F Gomes Loureiro was 47 at the time of his death. He was the director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT and a faculty member of the university's Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics departments, according to Fox News.
Nuno Loureiro was born in Portugal. His faculty web page says that, Loureiro studied Physics at the Instituto Superior TĂ©cnico in Lisbon and graduated in 2000. He earned his PhD in Physics from Imperial College London in 2005. A theoretical physicist and fusion scientist, he was well known for his award-winning work on magnetised plasma dynamics. Magnetised plasma dynamics studies how charged particles move when affected by a magnetic field.
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Loureiro joined the faculty at MIT in 2016 and became director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2024. According to MIT, his research focused on difficult problems found inside fusion reactors and in extreme conditions in space. He also worked on ways to develop clean fusion energy to help fight climate change, BBC reported.
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What is known about the shooting
The Boston Globe has quoted local authorities, who have ensured that a homicide investigation is underway. The United States Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal has posted a statement from the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal John J. Arrigo on their X handle, "I extend my deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Nuno Loureiro, who led MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. We honor his life, his leadership in science, and his enduring contributions.”
