MIT grieves shooting death of renowned director of plasma science center

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community is grieving after the “shocking” shooting death of the director of its plasma science and fusion center, according to officials.Nuno FG Loureiro, 47, had been shot multiple times at his home in Brookline on Monday night when police said they received a call to investigate. Emergency responders brought Loureiro to a hospital, and the award-winning scientist was pronounced dead there Tuesday morning, the Norfolk county district attorney’s office said in a statement.The statement from the district attorney’s office said an investigation into Loureiro’s slaying remained ongoing later Tuesday. But the agency did not immediately release any details about a possible suspect or motive in the killing, which gained widespread attention across academic circles, the US and in Loureiro’s native Portugal.Portugal’s minster of foreign affairs announced Loureiro’s death in a public hearing Tuesday, as CNN reported.Separately, MIT president Sally Kornbluth issued a university-wide letter expressing “great sadness” over the death of Loureiro, whose survivors include his wife.“This shocking loss for our community comes in a period of disturbing violence in many other places,” said Kornbluth’s letter, released after a weekend marred by deadly mass shootings at Brown University in Rhode Island as well as on Australia’s Bondi Beach.The letter concluded by providing a list of mental health resources, saying: “It’s entirely natural to feel the need for comfort and support.”Kornbluth said Loureiro was born in central Portugal, and had aspired to be a scientist since childhood.He obtained undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in physics from Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico and London’s Imperial College, respectively. He completed postdoctoral work at Princeton University’s plasma physics laboratory in New Jersey and at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, which is the UK’s national lab for such research.Loureiro then returned to Portugal to serve as the principal investigator for the Instituto Superior Técnico’s institute for plasmas and nuclear fusion before joining MIT’s faculty in 2016.In 2022, MIT appointed him as the deputy director of its plasma science and fusion center. Loureiro had been that lab’s director since May 2024.Loureiro in January received one of fewer than 400 early career awards for scientists and engineers given out by Joe Biden, who was reaching the end of his presidency at the time.“It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems,” Loureiro said upon being appointed to direct one of the university’s largest labs, according to Kornbluth’s letter. “Fusion is a hard problem, but it can be solved with resolve and ingenuity – characteristics that define MIT.“Fusion energy will change the course of human history. It’s both humbling and exciting to be leading a research center that will play a key role in enabling that change.”