RI - Mass Shooting at Brown University - Providence 13 Dec 2025

[Lusitana]

With all due respect, and not speaking up for the apparent shooter……

But it is not IMO proper or appropriate to disparage a Master’s degree individual or their accomplishments. I personally have a Master’s degree.

Yes, some academic institutions offer a Master’s degree in addition to a full Ph.D. But not all.

And sincere respect and condolences to those slain and their families. MOO

I don’t think people mean it like that. I also got my Master’s and I couldn’t be paid to subject myself to study any further. Most people don’t proceed to Doctorate’s. In Portugal, Doctorate’s are for the people who have the goal to stay in Academia, if you want to have a “regular” job, you don’t need a Doctorate.

What he did was vile but Cláudio was undoubtedly a very intelligent man, and I wouldn’t be surprised if him not finishing up at Brown didn’t actually have anything to do with his capabilities to do so in terms being smart enough. I keep seeing a lot of people assuming a bunch of things about him and Nuno that are not true.

I would like to know when was the last time Cláudio was in Portugal, especially if he was there recently.

By the way, Nuno started working at MIT in 2016 and Cláudio arrived in the US with his Green Card in 2017.

I am more bothered about this awful situation being used as campaign to end the lottery, because portuguese people don’t need a Visa to visit the US. If he didn’t live in the US and he really wanted to do what he did, he would’ve easily been able to do so by just… visiting. Never needed a Green Card for any of that.

 

[Telltale]

How does a 48 year old in America not have a digital trail?

It might be in Portuguese, which could be a barrier to finding it, at least for the public. He could also just be... Not online much. At least on public social media. I have a few friends in their 30s who have Steam or Reddit but have no social media at all anymore. If you looked for me under my name, (actually it's not even under my legal name) all there is to find is a Facebook account that I last posted on a decade ago.

 

[JDG]

How does a 48 year old in America not have a digital trail?

If you mean cell phones, I understand he was using European SIM cards that could not be traced or used for tracking locations.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

All successes at the top universities. My guess is Claudio couldn't do much having only gained a master's degree, and had squandered his opportunities. Was probably seething with jealousy. JMO

How do you know he "squandered" his opportunities? We know he took leave from the programme but did not subsequently return. His leave of absence could have been health related, whether his own or that of a close family member. I can imagine that if I was studying in a foreign country and a parent was diagnosed with, eg, cancer, I too would want to return home to be with them. The parent could have been ill for several years and either died or gone into remission, but other factors might have changed in the meantime that made it difficult for him to return to the university.

He could also have developed mental health problems which were not or could not be treated effectively enough for him to get his life back on track.

 

[BigCityAccountant1]

Plant a bomb or set a fire or I don't know deface the building in some way.

THANK GOD HE DIDN'T!!! There would have been many many more casualties.

 

[LAborn]

see now, i think he could have done plenty with that master's degree and had a successful, fulfilling life.

though as i'm sure you know, people in certain programs (including physics) attach a lot of significance to whether you continue on the academic track: phd -> post-doc -> tenure. and breaking off that track is seen as the "loser" route. people still on it tell themselves and each other that the people who leave "couldn't hack it".

if that mentality was really embedded for CV, he might not have been able to pivot and find meaning and success outside of academia. his degree was probably quite marketable.

Agree, he could have had a fine life with a master's!! I found he had won prestigious physics awards in Portugal. My guess is he had high aspirations, and flamed out:

Valente's physics achievements in Portugal​

In 2004, Valente reportedly placed third in the National Physics Olympiad, showing early promise in the subject. Then, he went on to represent Portugal at the International Physics Olympiad in Australia in 1995, as per a report.

In September 1998, he was a ‘monitor’ at Instituto Superior Técnico (I.S.T.), but was terminated from the position in February 2020." Claudio Neves Valente: Brown shooting suspect's promising physics record, time at Brown University and more

 

[Lebowski]

my department gave physics grad students the option of getting a master's degree on the way to their phd. i did an internship working next to two grad students. one of them absolutely took that master's degree. the other did not, and criticized the first guy for doing it. i think the prof criticized it a little too? the idea was that it was a signal that you were not committed and planned to leave the moment you hit a challenge.

i agree with the first guy. advisors have a lot of power over their students, and if you get stuck with a bad one, it sucks, because it is hard to change advisors. at the very least, it looks bad on paper. and the amount of leverage that gives the prof depends a lot on whether you have anything to show for your time with them. so i say take that master's. why not? if you advisor sucks (and this one did), it gives you leverage to protect yourself. i find the second guy's attitude about it toxic and irrational. all the responsibility goes on the person with none of the power? come on.

i should say that the second guy was a captain america type. a very good and moral person, very hard working, good at his job and overachieved at everything. he has since landed tenure at a good university, unsurprisingly. the first guy did finish his phd, but has gone on to become an eternal post-doc. ... but i don't think it follows from all that you don't take the free master's. the fact that there was pressure against it i think shows how messed up some of these circumstances can be.

 

[LAborn]

If you mean cell phones, I understand he was using European SIM cards that could not be traced or used for tracking locations.

Actually I meant work history, news articles, volunteering, anything via a google search. I can't find anything. Not even a Linkedin account. He's young enough to know about those things. Seems strange.

 

[LAborn]

How do you know he "squandered" his opportunities? We know he took leave from the programme but did not subsequently return. His leave of absence could have been health related, whether his own or that of a close family member. I can imagine that if I was studying in a foreign country and a parent was diagnosed with, eg, cancer, I too would want to return home to be with them. The parent could have been ill for several years and either died or gone into remission, but other factors might have changed in the meantime that made it difficult for him to return to the university.

He could also have developed mental health problems which were not or could not be treated effectively enough for him to get his life back on track.

He left Brown's Ph.D. program and never returned. Taking a LOA--he could have returned, but didn't. Do you have info that he left the US to go back to Portugal after leaving Brown?

 

[Elley Mae]

How does a 48 year old in America not have a digital trail?

I’m 69

I have no email or app’s, this here is my only digital trail.

Eta i created an email to get here that I haven’t been to since.

 

[justtrish]

THANK GOD HE DIDN'T!!! There would have been many many more casualties.

Oh absolutely! I was just mentioning if he had an issue with Brown and maybe Barus and Holley due to it being where his Physics classes were all held back in the day, then he just shoots up a Economic class? It could have been much worse, and I am thankful it wasn't.

 

[Lusitana]

He was terminated from a job at the university he studied at in Portugal. And left Brown's Ph.D. program and never returned. Taking a LOA, he could have returned, but didn't. Do you have info that he left the US to go back to Portugal after leaving Brown?

I think whatever he was still doing at IST was extra. He graduated from there, and was able to get a place at Brown, so whatever happened at IST wasn’t that serious, otherwise I can’t see Brown taking him at all let alone so soon after being “terminated” by IST. My opinion is that he wasn’t terminated, he probably looked for an opportunity in the US and got it, so he left.

 

[CrimeDawg123]

my department gave physics grad students the option of getting a master's degree on the way to their phd. i did an internship working next to two grad students. one of them absolutely took that master's degree. the other did not, and criticized the first guy for doing it. i think the prof criticized it a little too? the idea was that it was a signal that you were not committed and planned to leave the moment you hit a challenge.

i agree with the first guy. advisors have a lot of power over their students, and if you get stuck with a bad one, it sucks, because it is hard to change advisors. at the very least, it looks bad on paper. and the amount of leverage that gives the prof depends a lot on whether you have anything to show for your time with them. so i say take that master's. why not? if you advisor sucks (and this one did), it gives you leverage to protect yourself. i find the second guy's attitude about it toxic and irrational. all the responsibility goes on the person with none of the power? come on.

i should say that the second guy was a captain america type. a very good and moral person, very hard working, good at his job and overachieved at everything. he has since landed tenure at a good university, unsurprisingly. the first guy did finish his phd, but has gone on to become an eternal post-doc. ... but i don't think it follows from all that you don't take the free master's. the fact that there was pressure against it i think shows how messed up some of these circumstances can be.

Grad school in a nutshell

 

[LAhiker]

Preface

• The notion of “men of action” exists and is widely accepted by mainstream society (e.g. Men of Action is a 1935 American drama film directed by Alan James) and minorities (e.g. Men of Action mentoring by MOA Men of Action | Michael Sartain)
• In contrast to the “men of action” are “the other men.”

Now the point

• IMHO, we don’t know the ratio of “men of action” vs. “the other men”, but if someone were creepy weird enough, they will be scrutinized and/or confronted by “men of action” sooner than later.
• In the case of this Brown shooting suspect, the layers of bundles and their unusual behavior notwithstanding weather conditions, such as 1) the masks shown in the pictures seemingly with multiple straps and 2) the surveilling of the environment as indicated by the body language in the videos, should trigger alarm.

IMHO, thanks god some “men of action” are still everywhere.

I'm glad we for men AND women of action -- people who take action. And I'm glad that the Reddit guy "John" didn't only notice something off -- he actively investigated, confronted, posted about, and ultimately told the FBI about his interactions with Valente. What John did didn't stop the shooting, but it cracked the case. All praise to him.

And praise also to the female professor who noticed the suspect’s car driving very slowly and took down their license plate number, and to the janitor who confirmed that Valenti had been in the area for a while. Praise to the men and women of action.

JMO

 

[apeXperience]

Contrasting some important life altering events of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente (in foregoing Valente) and Nuno Filipe Gomes Loureiro (in foregoing Loureiro) intuits to long lasting grudges as motives of both 1) the mass shooting at the Barus & Holley Engineering and Physics Building at Brown University and 2) the targeted assassination of Loureiro at his apartment

• Educational institutions in Portugal avail Bachelors and Integrated Masters programs over 5 years
• Both Valente and Loureiro studied physics at the Instituto Superior Técnico over 5 years from 1995 to 2000 (varied sources such as probable cause affidavit PCA)
• Loureiro studied physics at the Instituto Superior Técnico, graduating in 2000 with an undergraduate and master's degree (Kornbluth, Sally (16 December 2025). MIT Organization Chart)
• Valente attended Instituto Superior Técnico with Loureiro, with Valente having been removed (ie. did not graduate) from university in the same year Loureiro graduated (Molot, Clara (19 December 2025). Vanity Fair)
• Loureiro attended Imperial College London (UK) and obtained a doctorate in physics in 2005; researched as post-doc at Princeton University (2005-2007); worked for UK Atomic Energy Authority (2007-2009); worked for Portugal Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear (2009-2016); and returned to the US via joining MIT as a professor and fusion scientist (Winn, Zach (16 December 2025). MIT News)
• Valente entered the US on Brown University F1 student visa as a Physics PhD student in August 2000; spent 2000-2001 at the Barus & Holley Engineering and Physics Building where the 2025 shooting occurred; left in May 2021 after 3 semesters; and withdrawn from PhD program (ie. did not graduate) in 2003; and returned to the US on a Diversity visa lottery in 2017 (PCA)

The following intuitions would serve as leading indicators as to the motive of 1) the mass shooting at the Barus & Holley Engineering and Physics Building at Brown University and 2) the targeted assassination of Loureiro at his apartment

• Both Valente and Loureiro studied physics at the Instituto Superior Técnico over the same 5 years 2000-2005. Does Loureiro have any role in the life changing event leading up to Valente being kicked out without a degree in Portugal?
• Valente got admitted to the Physics PhD program of Brown University in August 2000, perhaps with legitimate undergraduate and masters transcripts. It is logical for the PhD program to put him on leave to complete his incomplete credits toward graduation when it is disclosed that he does not have degrees in 2001. It is logical for him to be withdrawn from the PhD program in 2003 if he could not sort out his lack of sufficient admission credentials. Does Loureiro have any role in the life changing event leading up to disclosure of lack of degree and Valente being withdrawn without a PhD degree from Brown University?
• Valente spent 2000-2001 at the Barus & Holley Engineering and Physics Building at Brown University. Perhaps, he did not know that the study session in the amphitheater was for Economics instead of Physics students when he came back in 2025 to accomplish the mass shooting at the school, in the building he was familiar with. Does the life changing event leading up to Valente being withdrawn from Brown University's Physics PhD program have contentious elements?

Perhaps, these questions will be answered one way or the other way soon as the Providence PD, the FBI, and the authorities in Portugal continue to investigate Valente.

Edit: conflicting and varied pieces of information add in about their respective positions at Instituto Superior Técnico over the same 5 years 2000-2005, but it seems obvious that the events did not make them "good friends", and perhaps the potentially reciprocal grudges lasted their life times, and drove their destiny. Sad!

 

[99cats]

I think whatever he was still doing at IST was extra. He graduated from there, and was able to get a place at Brown, so whatever happened at IST wasn’t that serious, otherwise I can’t see Brown taking him at all let alone so soon after being “terminated” by IST. My opinion is that he wasn’t terminated, he probably looked for an opportunity in the US and got it, so he left.

I agree. The more I think about it, I think "terminated" is simply a placeholder for "left the position", particularly if he was in a RA role and in the process of graduating from undergrad.

 

[Rikissa]

Neves Valente and Loureiro previously attended the same academic program at a university in Portugal between 1995 and 2000, U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley said. Loureiro graduated from the physics program at Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal’s premier engineering school, in 2000, according to his MIT faculty page. The same year, Neves Valente was let go from a position at the Lisbon university, according to an archive of a termination notice from the school’s then-president in February 2000.

Man suspected in Brown University shooting and MIT professor’s killing is found dead, officials say

Officials say a man who is suspected in last weekend’s mass shooting at Brown University and in the fatal shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor has been found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility.

apnews.com

…

He was let go from his job at lisbon university,

Has there been any information why he was let go from his position? I would guess that it was something he did at the same time as he was studying, and the spring term was the last before graduation, as he went on to study at Brown University in the autumn that year. Maybe he didn't have time enough for both his final studies and the work, perhaps the school needed someone working more hours, and Neves Valente had to chose between concentrating on his studies or on the work. Until there's more information about why he was let go, we don't know why, a person may chose to leave a job without them having done anything wrong to have got a termination notice.

 

[indicolite22]

According to University, the suspect graduated at the top of his class with higher grade that his later victim. The suspect was a TA at the university when he was let go, while the victim remained at the school as a researcher and became a team leader.

Suspected Killer of M.I.T. Professor Studied With Victim, Graduating Top of Their Class

Claudio Neves Valente, the suspected killer of Nuno Loureiro, studied with him in Lisbon in the 1990s.

www.nytimes.com

 

[JennieM]

What if he thought the victim was part of the reason he was let go?

 

[PoisonPill]

Very late to this, but absolutely love that both cases were solved by a Reddit post. Don't ever think that these forum discussions are just idle chatter that can't have an impact.