Lauded theoretical physicist and director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center Nuno Loureiro has been murdered at the age of 47.
The professor was shot “multiple times” at this home in Brookline, Massachusetts, according to officials, and died on Tuesday morning in the hospital.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office has since said that the incident is being treated as an “active and ongoing homicide investigation.”
It’s a baffling incident, with no motive in sight — and no clue as to whether the homicide was in any way related to Loureiro’s illustrious career in the fusion energy field.
For decades, scientists have attempted to harness the energy released by fusing atoms inside highly complex reactors, a green and potentially safer alternative to nuclear fission. Scientists are only beginning to crack the point at which fusion plants generate more energy than they require to operate, and plenty of questions remain about our ability to scale up these operations — despite enormous interest from the private sector and major investments from the likes of Amazon cofounder Jeff Bezos and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Loureiro was known for his award-winning fusion science research, studying the motion of charged particles in the presence of an external magnetic field.
His research “helped inform the design of fusion devices that could harness the energy of fusing plasmas, bringing the dream of clean, near-limitless fusion power closer to reality,” according to an MIT obituary.
Loureiro was convinced that “we are really progressing towards finally having electricity from fusion,” plasma physicist Bruno Soares Gonçalves told Nature.
MIT head of the department of physics Deepto Chakrabarty described him as a “wonderful and engaging colleague, and an inspiring and caring mentor for graduate students working in plasma science.”
“His recent work on quantum computing algorithms for plasma physics simulations was a particularly exciting new scientific direction,” Chakrabarty added.
As we await more news about ongoing investigations into Loureiro’s death, users on social media immediately spun up the rumor mill. Many proposed it had to do with his unusual career.
“I wonder which 3-letter agency did it?” one user speculated.
“It is so obvious what THEY are doing,” another user argued, conspiratorially. “But there will be zero outrage. Zero coverage. This will get swept under the rug just like THEY do to every other cure.”
As we await word from officials and law enforcement, one thing is clear: Loureiro will be sorely missed. He leaves behind a wife and three young children.
“Nuno was not only an extraordinary scientist and educator, but also a tremendous colleague, mentor, and friend who cared deeply about his students and his community,” head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, Benoit Forget, told MIT Tech News in an email. “His absence will be felt profoundly across [Nuclear Science & Engineering] and far beyond.”
More on fusion energy: We’re Only Slightly Exaggerating When We Say This Footage of a Fusion Experiment Will Melt Your Face Off
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