A Massachusetts university professor who was shot at his home has died, campus officials say.

Nuno F Gomes Loureiro, 47, a nuclear science and engineering professor from Portugal, was shot "multiple times" on Monday and died on Tuesday morning in hospital, according to Brookline police and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) officials.

Police said officers responded to a call for gunshots at an apartment at about 8:30pm local time. Loureiro was taken by ambulance to a Boston hospital, where he died on Tuesday morning.

No one is in custody and police are treating the incident as "an active and ongoing homicide investigation", the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office said.

CBS News, the BBC's US media partner, reported that a neighbour said he heard "three loud bangs" Monday evening and thought somebody in the apartment building was kicking in a door.

Long-time resident Anne Greenwald told CBS that the professor had a young family and went to school nearby.

Loureiro majored in Physics at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon in 2000 and obtained a PhD in physics at Imperial College London in 2005, according to his faculty web page.

Loureiro was known for his research on the dynamics of plasma. He was named director of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Centre in May.

He also studied how to harness clean "fusion power" to combat climate change, CBS said.

"Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving," an MIT spokesperson said in a statement to CBS.

The university added that "focused outreach and conversations" are taking place within the MIT community to offer care and support for those who knew the professor. (BBC)

• Students walk past the "Great Dome" on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus. A 47-year-old MIT physicist and fusion scientist was shot Monday night at his home in Brookline and died at a local hospital on Tuesday, Charles Krupa/AP/File

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