Israeli officials are reportedly investigating a possible Iranian connection to the murder of senior MIT nuclear scientist Prof. Nuno F. G. Loureiro, who was reportedly shot at his home on Monday evening by unknown assailants and died in the hospital a few hours later.
Professor Loureiro, 47, was the director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), whose faculty he joined in 2016. He was born and raised in Portugal, earning an undergraduate degree from the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon and a Ph.D. from Imperial College in London, then spending several years at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion in Lisbon before moving to the United States.
“Professor Loureiro distinguished himself by his intellectual rigor, his tireless dedication to science, and the significant contributions he made to the field of physics. His premature death is an irreplaceable loss for science and for all who worked and collaborated with him,” Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in his message of condolences for Loureiro’s death.
Loureiro was a highly respected theoretical physicist who did landmark research into plasma dynamics, with applications ranging from the study of solar flares to the creation of fusion energy reactors. He admired the “peerless intellectual caliber of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT” and said he enjoyed teaching there, as well as conducting cutting-edge research.
“It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems. Fusion is a hard problem, but it can be solved with resolve and ingenuity — characteristics that define MIT. Fusion energy will change the course of human history,” he said in a 2024 interview.
Plasma physicist Bruno Soares Goncalves, president of the Institute of Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion in Lisbon, said Loureiro was passionate about fusion energy research and believed “we are really progressing towards finally having electricity from fusion.”
Loureiro was liked and respected by colleagues and students alike. Benoit Forget, head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, memorialized him as “a tremendous colleague, mentor, and friend who cared deeply about his students and his community.” Many other eulogies mentioned how devoted he was to mentoring young talent and inspiring students to pursue careers in his extremely demanding field.
Dozens gathered outside Loureiro’s apartment building for a candlelight vigil on Tuesday night, passing out candles to his neighbors so that every window would be lit.
Local police had no suspects and few theories about the murder as of Thursday. Loureiro suffered multiple gunshot wounds at his home on Monday night and succumbed to his injuries at the hospital on Tuesday. The police have made no announcements about eyewitnesses or evidence at the crime scene and they refuse to speculate on the possible motives of the unknown assailant.
CBS News on Thursday cited sources who said Loureiro “wasn’t working on anything classified, as there’s no classified work being performed on campus.”
The Boston Globe reported on Wednesday that the FBI has offered to assist with the investigation, but state authorities have not yet requested federal assistance.
According to the Jerusalem Post (JP) on Wednesday, Israeli officials are “examining intelligence from recent days that suggests an Iranian connection to the murder.”
“The Israeli investigation is being conducted against the backdrop of Loureiro’s sensitive field of research,” JP reported. “However, informed sources have emphasized that at this stage, there is no unequivocal determination or evidence linking the murder to a state or intelligence operation.”
The Jewish magazine Forward on Wednesday sought to debunk social media rumors that Loureiro was killed because he was an outspoken supporter of Israel and Jewish people as unfounded. The rumors appear to be based on some social media posts that were mistakenly attributed to Prof. Loureiro, but actually written by someone else using the same name, along with a photo posted to social media that claimed to show a “Stand With Israel” sign in the professor’s window.
Forward also said there is no definitive public evidence at this time about Loureiro’s religious faith, a topic that MIT will not discuss about its faculty members as a matter of policy.
On Thursday afternoon, WPRI News in Providence, Rhode Island reported that police are investigating “possible ties” between Loureiro’s murder and the shooting at Brown University on Saturday.
There has been much speculation about such a connection, since the killer has proven remarkably elusive in both cases, and Loureiro’s home in Brookline is only about 50 miles from Brown University, so it would not be difficult for the killer to get from one murder site to the other in less than two days.
The police have dismissed any possible connection between the two killings at the time of publication. WPRI’s report did not elaborate on what “ties” the police might be investigating.
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