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BROOKLINE, Mass. — A world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor and fusion-energy physicist was shot and killed inside his home earlier this week, an attack that has rattled one of the country’s most elite scientific communities.
Nuno F. Gomes Loureiro, 47, was a professor of nuclear science and engineering and the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Loureiro was a renowned figure in fusion-energy research, a field that seeks to recreate the power of the sun inside fusion reactors on Earth. His theories and models helped guide major fusion experiments in the United States and Europe.
Loureiro was rushed to a hospital with “apparent gunshot wounds” Monday evening and pronounced dead Tuesday morning, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. A homicide investigation is underway.
NEIGHBORS OF SLAIN MIT PROFESSOR STUNNED BY KILLING
Undated file photo of Nuno Loureiro, a professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics at MIT. (Jake Belcher for MIT)
No suspect has been identified and the motive for the killing is still unknown.
The shooting in Brookline occurred two days after an attack at Brown University left two dead and nine injured on Saturday.
While investigators in both cases, at prestigious universities less than 50 miles apart, are sharing intelligence, the special agent in charge of Boston’s FBI office, Ted Docks, said at a news briefing Tuesday that authorities don’t think they’re connected.
Originally from Portugal, Loureiro studied in his home country, in the United Kingdom and in the United States, where he researched topics including the phenomenon behind solar flares. He also focused on plasma — a super-hot form of matter found in stars and in experimental fusion reactors.
Fusion is the process that makes the sun burn and Loureiro’s work explored how that power could be bottled on Earth and controlled inside those reactors. If fusion ever becomes a real source of cheap, clean electricity, it will rely on the kind of physics he helped explain.
MIT Professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro speaks in an undated photo. (rafaelmgrossi via X)
“Nuno was not only a brilliant scientist, he was a brilliant person,” Dennis Whyte, a fellow MIT professor, said in an obituary posted by the university. “He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner. His loss is immeasurable to our community at the PSFC, NSE and MIT, and around the entire fusion and plasma research world.”
Allen Taylor, a Tufts University professor of biomechanical and molecular nutrition who lives in the area, told Fox News Digital outside Loureiro’s home on Wednesday that the shooting rocked the tight-knit community, which is also home to several Brown University students, where another shooting claimed two lives over the weekend.
“I’m concerned because he was a human being, first, and secondly, because he’s a scientist, and I know how much we invest in training people so they can make major contributions to our society, and then when they’re murdered, it’s a tremendous compromise to our community and to the world at large,” Taylor said.
MIT PROFESSOR SHOT, KILLED IN BROOKLINE HOME: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT BOSTON-AREA ATTACK
The Brookline apartment building where MIT professor Nuno F. G. Loureiro was shot earlier this week is seen Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, as investigators continue to search for leads in the homicide case. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)
Loureiro obtained an undergraduate degree from the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon before getting a Ph.D. in physics at Imperial College London.
He went on to do post-doctoral work at Princeton University in New Jersey and UKAEA Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in the U.K. and returned to research in Lisbon before joining MIT’s faculty in 2016. He became a full professor in 2021 and was later named the director of the school’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
His research has earned him a half-dozen awards since 2015, most recently honored with the U.S. government’s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, which he received earlier this year.
MIT PROFESSOR SHOT DEAD IN BROOKLINE HOME, MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE LAUNCH HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION
A crowd of people holding candles gather outside the home of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in Brookline, Mass., Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
In a 2019 interview, Loureiro likened complicated science to an art form.
“When we stimulate theoretically inclined minds by framing plasma physics and fusion challenges as beautiful theoretical physics problems, we bring into the game incredibly brilliant students — people who we want to attract to fusion development,” he said.
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In an earlier lecture on accepting and overcoming failure, he urged students to set their goals high and not be afraid of falling short.
“If you’re not failing all the time, you’re aiming too low,” he said.
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Federal investigators are continuing to piece together the December shootings that killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor, leaving nine others wounded, authorities said.
Authorities on Tuesday released transcripts of videos they say were recorded by Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the man responsible for the Brown University mass shooting and the killing of an MIT physicist.
Two Brown students, Ella Cook, 19, and Muhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed in the Dec. 13 shooting on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus, and nine other people were wounded, authorities said. Just two days later, Nuno Loureiro, a professor at MIT, was killed in Brookline, Mass.
As of the latest update, eight of the students injured at Brown had been released from the hospital, while one person remained hospitalized.
Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts released this image showing the man identified in the deadly shootings of Brown University students in Rhode Island and a professor from MIT. (Justice Department)
BROWN UNIVERSITY SHOOTER CONFESSED IN VIDEOS TO PLANNING ATTACK FOR LONG TIME, SHOWED NO REMORSE: DOJ
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, investigators executed a federal search warrant on Dec. 18 at a storage facility used by Neves Valente, a Portuguese national. The FBI recovered an electronic device containing several short videos recorded after the shootings. Transcripts of those videos, translated from Portuguese to English, were released Tuesday.
In the recordings, prosecutors said Neves Valente admitted he had been planning the Brown shooting for a long time and said Brown was his intended target. Authorities said he did not provide a motive for targeting Brown students or the MIT professor.
Investigators said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced the gun used in the shootings as part of the investigation.
Officials have not publicly released details about the weapon’s origin or purchase history. Fox News Digital has reached out to the FBI for comment.
Split image showing Brown University victims Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, alongside MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, who was killed. (Instagram/elinacoutlakis/GoFundMe/Jake Belcher for MIT)
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Josh Schirard, a former tactical emergency response director at the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting and director of Byrna Law Enforcement, said the transcripts confirm responsibility for the attack but offer little clarity about why it occurred.
“He understood what he did. He understood that he had a why behind it,” Schirard said. “He just didn’t opine on why that was.”
Schirard said the shooter rejected ideological explanations and denied being mentally ill.
Investigators tow away the Nissan Sentra used by Brown University shooter Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, Salem, N.H., Thursday, Dec. 19, 2025. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)
EVIDENCE SHOWS DEADLY BROWN, MIT SHOOTINGS MAY BE LINKED, SOURCES SAY: REPORT
“He even says, ‘I’m not mentally ill. I am very sane, and I did this knowing what I was doing,’” Schirard said.
“He talks about how killing those people was hard,” Schirard said, adding that the shooter said he envied people who could do so “without difficulty.”
A split image shows Claudio Neves-Valente, identified as the Brown University gunman, wearing the same jacket as a man identified earlier as a person of interest in the case. (Providence Police Department)
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An autopsy previously found Neves Valente died by suicide two days before his body was discovered in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire.
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Authorities said they do not believe there is any ongoing public safety threat associated with the shootings and that additional updates will be provided.
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Local News
A Boston woman is dealing with an unwelcome tenant on her front porch — a rat that has turned a baby stroller into a cozy winter hideaway.
The woman shared her ordeal Thursday on the r/Boston subreddit, explaining that she had left her stroller, complete with a muff, on her second-floor porch. When she checked on it later, she discovered a rat had moved in.
“I stupidly left our stroller with a muff out on the porch,” she wrote. “Today I found a big rat is nested in there. I can’t see clearly, but it seems it has chewed up the muff lining and is using the filling for a nest.”
The woman said she’s called a few pest control companies, but instead of offering immediate removal, they just tried to sell her a long-term bait boxing service.
“…Which is fine, but I urgently need someone to just safely remove the rat and the nest so I can clean or dispose of the stroller if needed,” she wrote, adding that she couldn’t secure a next-day appointment and felt Monday was too far away.
Turning to Reddit for advice, the woman asked whether she should attempt to remove the rat herself, saying she was worried about being bitten or contracting a disease. “Which professional can I call?” she asked.
Redditors reacted with a mix of humor and practical advice. The top comment began, “Sounds like it’s their porch now,” before offering an elaborate plan involving a bucket trap and joking that the rat could then “go on to be a Michelin star chef at a French restaurant,” a nod to the 2007 film “Ratatouille.”
Others suggested she evict the rat by vigorously shaking the stroller or whacking it with a broom, while many urged her to cut her losses entirely and throw the stroller out.
“I honestly wouldn’t ever use it for a small child after a rat had been cribbed up there,” one commenter wrote.
Pest control experts generally advise against handling rats without professional help. According to Terminix, rodents can become aggressive and scratch when threatened and may carry diseases such as hantavirus and leptospirosis.
“When it comes to getting rid of a rat’s nest in the house, DIY treatments won’t cut it,” the company warns on its website.
Boston has been grappling with heightened rat activity in recent years, prompting a citywide rodent action plan known as BRAP. City officials urge residents to “see something, squeak something!” and report rodent activity to 311. Officials said response teams are typically dispatched within one to two days.
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The Pittsburgh Pirates could use some bats, and the A’s are still looking to add some pitching this winter, so how likely is it that these clubs come together on a deal?
According to Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pirates are still on the lookout for some help on the left side of the infield. Over at Roster Resource, their starters at short and third as listed as Nick Gonzales (82 wRC+ in 2025) and Jared Triolo (86).
While the A’s are having a little showdown of their own at third base this spring, they have a number of players in the mix. Perhaps they could move one of them in a deal with Pittsburgh in order to land a relief pitcher with some upside.
The proposed deal that we have in mind is the A’s sending third baseman Brett Harris, who may be starting as the third option at the hot corner this spring. Harris has a tremendous glove at third, and statistically it appears to be at least on par with the glove what Triolo provided last season.
In just 183 2/3 innings with the A’s in 2025, Harris put up a +5 DRS, and +2 in both OAA and FRV. Triolo, in roughly 80 extra innings finished with a +7 DRS and +4 in both OAA and FRV. Both players are solid defensively.
Triolo has had more experience in the big leagues, which does account for something, but if you’re the Pirates, do you consider making a change and taking a chance on a similar defender with more upside in the bat? Their current option hit .227 with a .311 OBP and an 86 wRC+ last season in 376 plate appearances. Harris could put together a double-digit home run season at the very least.
Harris played in just 32 games (84 plate appearances) and hit .274 with a .349 OBP and a 96 wRC+. While he certainly looked like an improved player over his initial stint in the big leagues with the A’s in 2024, there was also some luck involved in his improvement—mainly his .377 BABIP. The risk for the Pirates would be taking the chance on that bat being for real.
In exchange, the proposed piece that the Pirates would send back in 30-year-old Yohan Ramírez. The right-hander ranks in the 94th percentile in extension on top of sitting at 96.4 miles per hour with his heater, which is quite appealing. He also held a 5.40 ERA (3.80 FIP) last season, so he’s far from a finished product, and given his age, he’s a flier himself.
This is the type of pitcher that the A’s have had success with in recent seasons—guys that can collect strikeouts but also tend to issue free passes. In 2025 with the Pirates, he struck out 29% of the batters he faced and walked 10.3%.
There are two interesting tidbits in his profile that could cause a little worry. The first is that he’s bounced around quite a bit in recent seasons, including spending time with the Dodgers, Mets, Orioles and Red Sox in 2024. Those are all teams that love to pull extra value from guys, and if they all gave up on him, then that’s not the greatest track record.
All of those teams seemed to view him as a guy that could provide a few innings when their bullpens were gassed, which led to him having short stints with each club, totaling a 6.20 ERA (4.26 FIP) across 45 innings.
The other interesting piece here is that when he has been with the Pirates, in both 2025 and back in 2022, his velocity has ticked up considerably. In 2022, he also spent time with the Mariners, and he was sitting 94.2. But with Pittsburgh, that went up to 96.5. In 2024, he topped out at 95.3 mph with the O’s and Mets.
This past season he was back to 96.2 mph. Is there something special for him about pitching in Pittsburgh? Do their radar guns run a little hot? Is this more of a time of year situation that gets hammered out over longer stints (like with the Pirates)? It’s unclear.
But if he’s truly a 96-mile-per-hour reliever that the A’s could add to their ‘pen, then this trade may be worth some heavy consideration.
Of course, Ramírez is out of options which would make this a little tricky, and Harris has roughly double the amount of team control, so the value may have to be squared away by adding another piece or two to the ledger. But these two players, Harris and Ramírez, could do a lot of good for the opposite clubs.
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