Nuno Loureiro


Nuno Filipe Gomes Loureiro was a Portuguese plasma physicist. He was the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center from 2024 until his murder in 2025.
On 15 December 2025, Loureiro was shot at his residence in Brookline, Massachusetts, and died from his injuries the following day. Authorities have connected his murder to Cláudio Manuel Neves Valente, who was the perpetrator of the shooting at Brown University that occurred three days prior to Loureiro's murder.
WWW web.mit.edu/nse/people/fa...

Early life and education

Nuno Filipe Gomes Loureiro was born in 1977 in Viseu, a city in central Portugal. He graduated from Alves Martins Secondary School. He studied physics at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, graduating in 2000 with an undergraduate and master's degree. Loureiro attended Imperial College London and obtained a doctorate in physics in 2005, with a dissertation on tearing modes in plasma. His early research focused on magnetohydrodynamics and astrophysical plasmas.

Career

After graduating, Loureiro joined Princeton University as a postdoctoral researcher at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in 2005. He left in 2007 to work at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, a laboratory under the UK Atomic Energy Authority, until 2009. He returned to Portugal as a researcher at the Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear at IST Lisbon for seven years.
In 2016, Loureiro joined MIT as a professor and fusion scientist. He studied magnetic reconnection and plasma turbulence using computational simulations and published widely in scientific journals. He became a full professor of physics in 2021 with a joint appointment in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. Loureiro was affiliated with the MIT Energy Initiative and the MIT Kavli Institute, and was a member of the American Physical Society.
In 2022, he became deputy director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, MIT's largest lab, and he was appointed full director in May 2024. In January 2025, President Joe Biden presented Loureiro with the Presidential Early Career Award, the highest U.S. government honor for young scientists.

Teaching

Loureiro was twice recognized with the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering PAI Outstanding Professor Award for teaching the courses "Intro to Plasma Physics" and "MHD Theory of Fusion Systems".

Murder

Loureiro was shot in the foyer of the apartment building where he lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the evening of 15 December 2025. He was transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston with gunshot wounds, where he was pronounced dead early on 16 December. Authorities opened a homicide investigation that received widespread publicity.
Portugal's Minister of Foreign Affairs Paulo Rangel announced his death to the Parliament of Portugal. The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, issued a statement calling his death "an irreplaceable loss for science", and the U.S. ambassador to Portugal released a statement with condolences. MIT president Sally Kornbluth published a message to the MIT community, and professors from across the university made public remarks regarding Loureiro's life and work. A vigil was held by his home in Brookline.
On 18 December, authorities announced that they were investigating a link between Loureiro's murder and the shooting at Brown University three days prior that killed two and injured nine. Authorities confirmed the link later that day at a press conference announcing the suicide of the lone suspect in the Brown University shooting, Cláudio Manuel Neves Valente, a Portuguese national. The Connecticut State Police Forensic Science Lab confirmed that one of the firearms found with Valente matched the weapon used in Loureiro's murder. Valente attended the Instituto Superior Técnico with Loureiro from 1995 to 2000, graduating first in his class, ahead of Loureiro. Later that same day, authorities found Valente dead of a self-inflicted gunshot inside a storage unit in New Hampshire.

Personal life

Loureiro was married and had three children. He was an avid participant in local pick-up soccer games.

Awards