Nuno Loureiro, director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, dies at 47.Credit: Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty
Scientists have expressed their shock and sadness following the death of plasma physicist Nuno Loureiro, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, who was shot at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Monday.
The scientist died from his injuries on Tuesday morning after being shot multiple times. Police say they are investigating his death and treating it as a homicide. Loureiro’s death is the second US university-related tragedy in a week, after two people were killed and nine others were injured in a shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday.
At the time of his death, Loureiro had been the head of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, a position he held since May last year. The laboratory hosts more than 250 scientists. This year, Loureiro was given the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, which is bestowed on researchers who show exceptional potential for leadership.
Loureiro was a “brilliant scientist”, who was sharp, kind and had a smart sense of humour, says Stanislav Boldyrev, a plasma physicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who began working with Loureiro in 2017. “It’s a privilege to have a friend like him,” Boldyrev adds. “He was so interested in science, it was almost contagious.”
“He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader, and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner,” said Dennis Whyte, former director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, in a statement.
Loureiro was passionate about the potential for fusion as a clean power source and about teaching a new generation of scientists, say colleagues. He thought “that we are really progressing towards finally having electricity from fusion”, says Bruno Soares Gonçalves, a plasma physicist and president of the Institute of Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion in Lisbon, where Loureiro worked until he moved to MIT in 2016.
“People in the community are so shocked and extremely saddened,” he says.
Nuno Loureiro was a theoretical physicist who was helping to develop clean-energy fusion devices. Credit: Jake Belcher/MIT
'Doing what he loved'
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