MIT professor working on nuclear fusion murdered
Photo. Fcb981, edycja Thermos, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3078866
Prof. Nuno Filipe Gomes Loureiro was shot multiple times in his own home on December 15, 2025, and died in hospital the following day. His research contributed to the development of nuclear fusion, which could become a carbon-free energy source, crucial in mitigating climate change.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor died in the morning of the 16th of December, in the hospital after being shot multiple times at his home previous day. Nuno Filipe Gomes Loureiro, 47, originally from Portugal, was a professor of physics, nuclear science, and engineering and director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) in the MIT Department of Physics.
Perpetrator unknown
The professor was attacked on December 15 at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. Police responded to reports of gunshots at around 8:30 p.m. local time. Loureiro was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Boston, where he died on the morning of December 16. According to information provided by the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, no one has been arrested at this time and the investigation is ongoing. “We are not releasing any further information at this time,” they added.
Prof. Loureiro graduated with a degree in physics from the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon in 2000 and received his PhD in physics from Imperial College London in 2005. From 2005 to 2007, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and from 2007 to 2009 at the UKAEA Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. Until 2016, he was a researcher at the Institute of Plasma and Nuclear Fusion at IST in Lisbon, and then joined MIT.
In 2021, he became a full professor of physics, also taking up a position at MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. The professor also held the Herman Feshbach (1942) Professorship of Physics, a special chair created in honor of the famous MIT physicist. He was also a member of the prestigious American Physical Society (APS).
Nuclear fusion for climate protection
He studied the behavior of plasma – the fourth state of matter – using theoretical physics in combination with computer simulations, machine learning, and quantum computing. It is in the plasma state that the reactions involved in nuclear fusion (also known as nuclear synthesis or thermonuclear reaction) take place. He explored issues related to turbulence in plasma and the physics underlying solar flares and other astronomical phenomena.
His work enables the design of better nuclear fusion devices in which fusion plasma energy can be more effectively controlled and utilized. This brings humanity closer to achieving the holy grail – clean, almost unlimited energy from nuclear fusion, which is the answer to climate change.
Prof. Loureiro has received numerous awards for his research. As Nuno Loureiro himself said in 2024 when he took up the position of Director of the Center for Science and Plasma Fusion:
A key aspect of this work is supporting our researchers' efforts to achieve the breakthroughs necessary to obtain energy from nuclear fusion. (...) It would not be an exaggeration to say that MIT is a place where solutions to humanity's greatest problems can be found. Nuclear fusion is a difficult problem, but it can be solved with determination and ingenuity—qualities that define MIT. Fusion energy will change the course of human history. I feel both humbled and excited to lead a research center that will play a key role in enabling this change.
Prof. Nuno Loureiro, MIT
