Homicide detectives are investigating the death of an MIT professor and laboratory director who was found shot inside his Brookline, Massachusetts home on Monday night.
Nuno F. G. Loureiro, 47, was transported to a local hospital with gunshot wounds after Brookline Police responded to a report of a man shot at the residence, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office.
Loureiro was pronounced dead on Tuesday morning.
Loureiro was a prominent figure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, serving as a faculty member in the Departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics, and as Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
“Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen said in a statement.
“Focused outreach and conversations are taking place within our community to offer care and support for those who knew Prof. Loureiro, and a message will be shared with our wider community.”
Massachusetts State Police are now leading what officials describe as an “active and ongoing” homicide investigation.
No additional details regarding potential suspects, evidence, or circumstances surrounding the shooting have been released.
MIT said it will not provide further comment “out of respect for the integrity of this ongoing investigation.”
A Brookline police spokesperson said officers responded to a call for gunshots at an apartment on Gibbs Street at about 8:30 p.m.
Brookline police deputy superintendent Paul Campbell told WBZ-TV:
“A victim was located who had been shot multiple times.”
Loureiro was taken by ambulance to a Boston hospital, where he died Tuesday morning.
No other information about the shooting was immediately released.
Authorities did not say if they are looking for a suspect, and Campbell said no one is in custody.
In a statement, Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office said:
“This is an active and ongoing homicide investigation.”
Brookline Neighbors Heard Shooting
A neighbor who did not want to be identified said he heard “three loud bangs” Monday evening.
“I thought at first it was somebody in our apartment kicking in a door or something, so I called the neighbors, and they said no, they thought it was gunshots,” he said.
Anne Greenwald, who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, said she and her husband also heard a noise that sounded like gunshots.
“He had a young family; they went to school here,” she said.
“It’s horrible, very scary.”
Loureiro was internationally known for his work in plasma physics and magnetic reconnection, fields central to nuclear fusion research.
Last May, Loureiro was named director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
An article on the school’s website described it as “one of MIT’s largest labs” with more than 250 full-time researchers, students, and staff working across seven buildings.
His death marks a significant loss for MIT’s scientific community as investigators work to determine what led to the fatal shooting.
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