Brookline, Massachusetts
AP
—
A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was fatally shot at his home close to Boston, and authorities stated Tuesday that they had launched a murder investigation.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist, was shot Monday night time at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. He died at an area hospital on Tuesday, the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office stated in a press release.
The prosecutor’s workplace stated no suspects had been taken into custody as of Tuesday afternoon, and that its investigation was ongoing.
Loureiro, who joined MIT in 2016, was named final 12 months to steer MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the place he aimed to advance clear power know-how and different analysis. The heart, one of many faculty’s largest labs, had greater than 250 individuals working throughout seven buildings when he took the helm.
Loureiro, who was married, grew up in Viseu, in central Portugal, and studied in Lisbon earlier than incomes a doctorate in London, in line with MIT. He was a researcher at an institute for nuclear fusion in Lisbon earlier than becoming a member of MIT, it stated.
“He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader, and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner,” Dennis Whyte, an engineering professor who beforehand led MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, instructed a campus publication.
The president of MIT, Sally Kornbluth, stated in a press release that Loureiro’s dying was a “shocking loss.”
The murder investigation in Brookline comes as police in Providence, Rhode Island, about 50 miles away, proceed to seek for the gunman who killed two students and injured 9 others at Brown University on Saturday. The FBI on Tuesday stated it knew of no connection between the crimes.
A 22-year-old scholar at Boston University who lives close to Loureiro’s condominium in Brookline instructed The Boston Globe she heard three loud noises Monday night and feared it was gunfire. “I had never heard anything so loud, so I assumed they were gunshots,” Liv Schachner was quoted as saying. “It’s difficult to grasp. It just seems like it keeps happening.”
Some of Loureiro’s college students visited his home, an condominium in a three-story brick constructing, Tuesday afternoon to pay their respects, the Globe reported.
The US ambassador to Portugal, John J. Arrigo, expressed his condolences in a web-based put up that honored Loureiro for his management and contributions to science.
“It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems,” Loureiro said when he was named to steer the plasma science lab final 12 months. “Fusion energy will change the course of human history.”