The MIT community is mourning the loss of a cherished science professor who was tragically shot in his residence on Monday evening. His neighbors made the shocking discovery in a shared hallway.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a 47-year-old father of three, was fatally shot at around 8:30 p.m. in his home located in a serene suburb of Boston. The shooter remains at large.
This incident occurred just two days after a separate shooting at Brown University, roughly 50 miles south, that resulted in the deaths of two students.
Louise Cohen, a neighbor and friend of Loureiro, recounted the harrowing moment she found his body. She was lighting a menorah when the sound of gunfire shattered the tranquility of their neighborhood on Gibbs Street in Brookline.
Upon hearing the shots, Cohen hurried to the building’s hallway, where she found Loureiro lying on his back.
In the entryway, Loureiro’s devastated wife and another neighbor were frantically calling 911. Despite being rushed to the hospital, Loureiro succumbed to his injuries the following day.
‘I can’t sleep now,’ Cohen told the Boston Globe. ‘This family is so amazing. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to kill him… Should we be afraid now?’
Cohen uses a walking stick and she said Loureiro’s family often helps her carry her groceries up the stairs to her unit, which is located directly above theirs.
Married father-of-three Nuno F.G. Loureiro (pictured), 47, was gunned down at his home in a leafy Boston suburb at 8.30pm by an unknown shooter who is still on the loose
Loureiro’s neighbor and friend, Louise Cohen, said she discovered his body after hearing gunshots disturb the peace of their beautiful area on Gibbs Street in Brookline (pictured)
Loureiro’s neighbors remembered him as a kind-hearted, ‘wonderful man’, while students flocked to a candle-lit vigil in his memory on Tuesday night, as shown above
Though the FBI has said there is no link between the Brown shooting in Rhode Island and Loureiro’s death in bordering Massachusetts, both gunmen are still unidentified and on the loose, and many people in the area have expressed feeling unsafe.
Another neighbor of Loureiro’s, Anne Greenwald, asked people to light candles in his memory on Tuesday evening. She said residents are worried.
‘There is too much violence going on,’ Greenwald told the Globe. ‘This is obviously very close to home.’
Other residents remembered Loureiro as a kind-hearted, ‘wonderful man’, while students flocked to the candle-lit vigil in his memory.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology paid tribute to him as, ‘a lauded theoretical physicist and fusion scientist’ who became the director of the college’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2024, an institution with more than 250 full-time researchers.
Loureiro specialized in nuclear science, engineering and physics. He leaves behind ‘many devoted students, friends, and colleagues’, according to his MIT obituary.
His academic career started at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal, where he gained a physics degree.
Loureiro obtained a doctorate in physics from Imperial College London in 2005, before starting post-doctoral work at Princeton later that year.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology paid tribute to Loureiro as ‘a lauded theoretical physicist and fusion scientist’ who became the director of the college’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2024, an institution with more than 250 full-time researchers
The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office told the Daily Mail no arrests have been made. ‘This is an active and ongoing homicide investigation,’ they said in a statement on Tuesday evening
MIT students lined Loureiro’s street to light candles in his memory on Tuesday evening
He also worked at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Culham Centre for Fusion Energy between 2007 and 2009.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth acknowledged that the beloved professor died in the wake of the Brown University shooting just two days before.
‘This shocking loss for our community comes in a period of disturbing violence in many other places,’ she said in a statement.
‘It’s entirely natural to feel the need for comfort and support.
‘If you or anyone you know would like counsel or just a listening ear, I encourage you to make use of our many campus resources.
‘In time, the many communities Nuno belonged to will create opportunities to mourn his loss and celebrate his life.’
The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office told the Daily Mail no arrests have been made.
‘This is an active and ongoing homicide investigation,’ they said in a statement. ‘No further information is being released at this time.’
