A highly respected Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was fatally shot in his home Monday night, authorities announced Tuesday.
Nuno F. Loureiro, who taught nuclear science and engineering, was transported to an area hospital after police responded to a report of a man shot at his home on Gibbs Street in Brookline.
Loureiro was pronounced dead Tuesday morning, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office.
Authorities gave no indication of a suspect or motive, calling their homicide investigation “active and ongoing.”
The 47-year-old scholar was the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. According to his bio on the university’s website, he earned a degree in physics from the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal in 2000, and obtained a Ph.D. in Physics from Imperial College London in 2005.
Prior to joining MIT, Loureiro did post-doctoral work at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and was a researcher at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion at IST Lisbon.
In January of this year, the Portuguese native was among 400 scientists and engineers honored by the Biden administration with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The award recognizes researchers who show “exceptional potential for leadership” early in their careers.
Portugal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs informed the country’s parliament on Tuesday that Loureiro had been killed outside Boston, according to CNN. The embassy offered its “deepest condolences” to Loureiro’s family, friends and colleagues in a statement published Tuesday.
A senior law enforcement official told CNN there was no immediate indication that Loureiro’s killing might be connected to Saturday’s shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island, in which 11 students were shot while studying in the school’s engineering and physics building.
Two of those victims died from their wounds, while seven remained in critical condition on Tuesday.
