Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a 47‑year‑old MIT physicist who led the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was fatally shot at his Brookline, Mass., home; local prosecutors opened a homicide investigation. Loureiro joined MIT in 2016 and had recently been appointed to lead one of the university’s largest labs focused on plasma and fusion research. MIT and colleagues described him as a mentor and an emerging leader in clean‑energy science; the university president called his death a 'shocking loss.' The incident arrived days after a separate campus mass‑shooting near Brown University and has intensified conversations among higher‑ed leaders about faculty and community safety, housing security for campus personnel, and trauma support services.