A homicide investigation has been launched following the fatal shooting of an MIT professor at his home in the US.
The respected scholar was shot near his home on Monday, triggering a police investigation just 50 miles from a university mass shooting that led to numerous deaths, according to the Mirror.
Nuno FG Loureiro, a 47 year old physicist, fusion scientist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was fatally shot on Monday evening at his residence in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was immediately rushed to hospital but sadly died on Tuesday, as confirmed by the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, reports The Mirror.
As per the prosecutor’s office, no suspects had been arrested as of Tuesday afternoon, with the investigation still underway. Loureiro, who joined MIT in 2016, was appointed last year to lead MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
His goal was to advance clean energy technology and other research projects. Under his leadership, the centre, one of the university’s largest labs, employed over 250 staff across seven buildings.
Loureiro was originally from Viseu, in central Portugal, and studied in Lisbon before earning his doctorate in London, according to MIT records. Before joining MIT, he was a researcher at a nuclear fusion institute in Lisbon.
« 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 previously led MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, told a campus publication.
The investigation in Brookline continues as police in Providence, Rhode Island, roughly 50 miles away, persist in their search for the gunman who killed two students and wounded nine others at Brown University on Saturday. The FBI confirmed on Tuesday that it was aware of no connection between the crimes.
A 22 year old Boston University student residing near Loureiro’s flat in Brookline told The Boston Globe she heard three loud bangs on Monday evening and suspected 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. »
Several of Loureiro’s students visited his home, a flat in a three-storey brick building, on Tuesday afternoon to pay their respects, the Globe reported.
The US ambassador to Portugal, John J Arrigo, extended his condolences in an online message that praised Loureiro for his leadership and scientific contributions.
« 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 lead the plasma science lab last year. « Fusion energy will change the course of human history. »
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