The shooting death of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor at his home near Boston is being investigated as a homicide, authorities said Tuesday.
Nuno Loureiro, 47, from Portugal, was pronounced dead Tuesday morning after he was found mortally wounded at his Brookline home Monday night.
He was a world-renowned plasma physicist and fusion scientist.
On Thursday, police were looking into whether there was any connection between his killing and the shooting that took place at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, four senior law enforcement officials told NBC News.
“This is an active and ongoing homicide investigation,” the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said on Tuesday.
MIT said in a statement, “Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving.”
MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in a statement, "This shocking loss for our community comes in a period of disturbing violence in many other places." She added that support was available for staff and students.
MIT said its police department is assisting in the investigation, which is being led by Massachusetts State Police. The university, citing the investigation, said it would not have further comment.
U.S. Ambassador to Portugal John J. Arrigo offered his "deepest condolences" to Loureiro's family, friends and colleagues. "We honor his life, his leadership in science, and his enduring contributions," he said in a statement Tuesday.
Loureiro was born and raised in a small city in central Portugal and studied in Lisbon and London, where he gained a Ph.D. in physics from Imperial College.
He joined MIT in 2016. Before that, he was a researcher at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion at IST Lisbon, MIT said.
Loureiro’s research interests were “theory and computational simulation of nonlinear plasma dynamics,” according to his MIT bio.
He was a professor in MIT’s department of nuclear science and engineering and the department of physics and was also director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the university said.
Loureiro was a popular teacher, engaging with students and scribbling numbers and figures on a white board like a physicist would be portrayed in the movies, according to Bruno Gonçalves, a plasma physicist and former colleague.
"If you think about the physicist drawing equations on the board, he was this type of guy, the guy that liked to give classes drawing equations on the board without any paper, just putting the equations there for his mind and explaining everything," Gonçalves said from Lisbon on Wednesday.
"And the students loved it."
Speaking to MIT News in 2018, Loureiro said of leading the Plasma Science and Fusion Center: "It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems. 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."
