Authorities continue to investigate the death of Nuno F Gomes Loureir, a revered MIT professor who was fatally shot in his Boston-area apartment earlier this week.
According to CBS News, the 47-year-old plasma physicist/fusion scientist was shot Monday night (December 15) in Brookline, Massachusetts, and died the next day at a nearby hospital. Police confirmed the incident is being investigated as a homicide, but have not publicly identified a suspect or a potential motive.
Several of Loureir’s neighbors told WVCB they heard loud bangs around 9 p.m. on Monday, but weren’t sure what caused them. One resident said it sounded like someone was "kicking in a door," while another believed it was gunfire.
"We heard a really loud noise," Anne Greenwald told the outlet. "I thought it sounded like a crashing noise, but my husband heard it and he said it sounded like gunshots. It's terrible. I mean I don't know what happened or why it happened but it's very scary. We're living in such scary times right now, but it seems like violence is just happening everywhere."
Loureir joined MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 2016 as a professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics. He earned tenure the following year and became the director of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2024. He dedicated most of his time to clean energy technology research.
"It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems," the professor told MIT News in May 2024. "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."
Sources told CBS News that the professor was not working on any classified projects at the time of his death.
"Nuno was not only a brilliant scientist, he was a brilliant person," Dennis Whyte, former director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, said in an obituary published by MIT. "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."
Loureir’s shooting occurred just days after and 50 miles from the Brown University mass shooting that left two people dead and nine injured.Authorities have yet to identify a suspect in the campus attack but have reportedly identified a “person of interest.”
FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks told reporters on Tuesday (December 16) that "there seems to be no connection" between the deadly shootings.