MIT professor shot, killed at his home in Boston suburbs

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/mit-professor-shot-killed-home-boston-suburbs-officials/story?id=128460718

MIT professor shot, killed at his home in Boston suburbs: Officials
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was found at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.

A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been shot and killed at his home, authorities said.

Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was found Monday night at his house in the upscale Boston suburb of Brookline. He was taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead on Tuesday, the Norfolk District Attorney’s office said.

The DA's office said the homicide investigation is ongoing.

Authorities have investigated whether his death could be connected to this weekend's Brown University shooting and, at this point, a senior law enforcement official briefed on both cases told ABC News there is nothing to suggest they’re connected.

The university said Loureiro was a "faculty member in the departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics, as well as the Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center."

"Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving," MIT said in a statement. "Focused outreach and conversations are taking place within our community to offer care and support for those who knew Prof. Loureiro, and a message will be shared with our wider community."

Loureiro was a native of Portugal, according to an MIT profile.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. Is it my imagination, or are random

mass shootings on the rise?

[Initech]

2. Random violence in general is on the rise.

And it's been made only worse by the fucking asshole in the White House and his ass kissing propaganda channels.

[maxsolomon]

3. Things have been terrible for over a decade,

and up for 5 years. Down slightly in 2024.

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

This was 1 person shot, so not a "mass shooting". That's 3 or more victims.

[Initech]

20. It started getting worse in 2012. Sandy Hook was the point of no return.

We could have put an end to the violence then. But nope, that worthless asshole Alex Jones had to go be a massive scumbag about it and treat the victims like shit. They didn't deserve that. Sandy Hook should have been the end of the gun debate, period.

[Renew Deal]

5. I doubt this is random

[lostnfound]

10. I doubt that this is random. Seems like a targeted murder in his home. Technical sabotage or...

Technical sabotage, or a mundane human relationship conflict, would be my guess. But even if it is the former, it will be made to look like the latter.

This man had a track record of remarkable research, and had announced the promising new fusion research they were doing in the research facility that he directed..

Describes his work,from a few months ago.
https://news.mit.edu/2024/nuno-loureiro-named-director-mit-plasma-science-fusion-center-0501

[TheProle]

12. 2025 is on pace to be the lowest number of mass shootings since the pandemic.

[sarisataka]

14. Is a single person shot now a mass shooting

As others have pointed out, they are actually down

[IronLionZion]

16. Shootings and murder and targeted assassinations sure

mass shooting is 4 or more victims.

[Javaman]

24. It is the holiday season after all

I read some fucked up stat years ago about there being more shootings during the holidays

[haele]

25. It's also "the season"....

End of year bonuses - or no bonus because the Government Shutdown or Tariffs affected you -
.."Sorry. I can't afford Christmas, you can't get that Nintendo Switch 2 I promised you..."

End of Semester - "I'm sorry, you missed the deadline for extra credit" ...

Holiday and Get-Together Expectations -
"I know you don't want to go, but it's the Holidays, and they expect us...Stop acting that way, you're ruining the Holidays for all of us..."

It's a tough time of year normally.
And this year has been a smoldering dumpster fire full of oily rags, chlorine, and an assortment of aerosol bottles filled with cleaning solvent.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

29. This is not a mass shooting, and what do you mean by "random"?

[Renew Deal]

4. "Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics"

Iran?

[milestogo]

15. Very Smart.

[NNadir]

34. I really wouldn't think Iran would be interested in a fusion guy.

[mopinko]

6. ftr- he was jewish.

[Behind the Aegis]

30. Meanwhile at Brown...

The economics class that was attacked is taught by Rachel Friedberg, a Jewish faculty member who researches the intersection of economics and Jewish studies and who has worked extensively in Israel, though she was not in the classroom at the time. Police have not indicated any antisemitic motive behind the shooting. But they also have not identified the shooter, igniting unease on campus and speculation online, particularly in the wake of the Sydney attack.

The Forward

[mopinko]

31. yup.

funny how that gets left out of these stories.
not.

[TheBlackAdder]

7. Most colleges have finals week this week. IDK if the professor had a class or denied a PhD intern.

[Irish_Dem]

17. My first thought as well. An angry PhD student.

[Clouds Passing]

8. Professor Lourieiro

[OldBaldy1701E]

9. "...official briefed on both cases told ABC News there is nothing to suggest they're connected."

Well, other than the constant enraging of the rabid right by their leaders to attack and destroy anything that is not right-wing fascism, but yeah... no connection that I can see.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. There seems to me to be a connection

Last edited Tue Dec 16, 2025, 09:35 PM - Edit history (1)

Very elite institutions of higher learning. Brookline is a very upscale zip code. Could be coincidence though, two is not exactly a pattern.

[Prairie Gates]

19. Both shootings targeted Engineering and Physics

Agree that these are connected. They're trying not to spread panic.

[Nigrum Cattus]

23. this is 100% project 2025

brown is a very "top shelf" university, 5% get in
M.I.T. is another one
P2025 has as a major goal to stop educating people at higher levels
the repugs have and continue to de-fund & attack the best universities
this might be the beginning of a new chapter in their hate regime
https://www.statementonchristiannationalism.com/

[riversedge]

13. May his family and friends find peace....

No words for these killings.

[Prairie Gates]

18. I'm calling it: This is the same shooter from Brown

At Brown he hit the Engineering and Physics building. He had no way of knowing it was an Economics class.

This is a Unabomber type asshole.

[yellow dahlia]

27. One has to wonder.

[NNadir]

21. I looked into that guy when helping my son review nuclear engineering graduate schools.

After his interview at MIT, my son decided it wasn't for him - he would have needed to live in poverty to be there and he wasn't impressed with the program - but I called up the file just now.

He was a fusion guy.

I wrote briefly about him back in '21 thus:

Plasma Physics guy, working on some of the areas we saw discussed at Science on Saturday lectures; unsurprising since he post docced at PPPL.

We're not fusion guys in our family; we're fission guys, so I didn't spend a lot of time looking into his work.

But that's all trivial.

Irrespective: This was an outstanding mind lost in these horrible times.

(I certainly hope nuclear engineers don't have targets on their backs.)

[lastlib]

22. Maybe the killer thought it was uncle john tRump?

He wuz a jeenyus, yunno..........

[Sneederbunk]

26. I have watched too many Datelines.

[flashman13]

28. I'm not trying to spin a conspiracy theory, but I wonder if it had anything to do with his professional position.

His position at MIT was described as, "faculty member in the departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics, as well as the Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center". That is, he was the head of Engineering and research in some very cutting edge fields of science. Fusion is the new holy grail of science. That could open the door to professional jealousy, or being on the verge of some significant break through that someone wanted to prevent, or he had discovered that some line of research wasn't going to work. It at least could provide some basis for a rational motive. Or it could have just been death by some rando burglarizing his house.

[farmbo]

32. Successful Nuclear fusion, if applied at scale, would alleviate the need for fossil fuels.

It could provide Unlimited, clean energy from water, by basically
splitting the water molecule into hydrogen — a versatile and powerful energy source— and oxygen. MIT is at the forefront of this research.
It’s interesting to speculate on which powerful industry could benefit by a substantial delay of this inevitable scientific breakthrough.

[flashman13]

33. Bingo!

[NNadir]

35. There are literally thousands of fusion scientists all over the world. It's not clear that he's even the best at it.

The problem with fusion is that it doesn't work this far, and even if they were able to get a stable plasma with a positive energy output, they have no means to recover exergy even on the drawing board.