MIT Physics Professor Shot and Killed at his Home

A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was shot inside his home late Monday in a killing authorities are now investigating as a homicide.

Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office responded Monday night, Dec. 15, to assist police after receiving a report of a man shot at a home on Gibbs Street in Brookline, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

The victim, identified as Nuno F. G. Loureiro, 47, was transported to an area hospital with apparent gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead Tuesday morning, Dec. 16.

“This is an active and ongoing homicide investigation,” the district attorney’s office said, adding that no further information was being released at this time.

An office spokesman, David Linton, told PEOPLE on Tuesday evening that there had been no arrests in the case.

Loureiro was a professor at MIT and a faculty member in the departments of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Physics. He also served as director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

“With great sadness, I write to share the tragic news that Professor Nuno Loureiro died early this morning from gunshot wounds he sustained a few hours before,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth wrote in a message to the campus community on Tuesday. “In the face of this shocking loss, our hearts go out to his wife and family and to his many devoted students, friends and colleagues.”

“Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” MIT said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. “Focused outreach and conversations are taking place within our community to offer care and support for those who knew Professor Loureiro.”

Loureiro was born and raised in central Portugal, according to an MIT News obituary. He earned an undergraduate degree in physics at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon before completing a Ph.D. in physics at Imperial College London in 2005.

He later conducted postdoctoral research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the UKAEA Culham Centre for Fusion Energy before joining MIT’s faculty in 2016.

A theoretical physicist and fusion scientist, Loureiro was known for his work on plasma dynamics and magnetic reconnection, per the obituary. He became deputy director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2022 and was named its director in May 2024.

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“Nuno was not only a brilliant scientist, he was a brilliant person,” Dennis Whyte, a senior MIT faculty member, told MIT News. “He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague, and leader, and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner. His loss is immeasurable to our community at the PSFC, NSE and MIT, and around the entire fusion and plasma research world.”

Portugal’s minister of foreign affairs announced Loureiro’s death in Parliament, CNN Portugal reported.

Authorities have not released additional details about the shooting.