Researchers have joined the chorus of Star Trek fans expressing grief at the death of actor Patrick Stewart, who played the legendary Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

Stewart, who died on 28 October aged 86, portrayed Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987 to 1994 and in various films from the franchise. As captain of the starship USS Enterprise, Picard led his crew on an intergalactic exploration in the twenty-fourth century as they encountered new worlds and civilizations. For many scientists, Captain Picard exemplified the qualities of a good scientific leader.

“His first immediate thought was to consider all angles and to ask questions,” says Sarah Bickerton, a public-policy researcher at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. But more importantly, says Bickerton, Picard consulted his Enterprise crew members — irrespective of rank — before making decisions. That shaped Bickerton’s own leadership approach. She says she makes a point of consulting her research assistants and graduate students on important decisions.

A film from the franchise that had an impact on Bickerton was Star Trek: First Contact (1996), in which Picard travels back in time to the twenty-first century and explains that in the future, money does not exist. “We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity,” Picard says.

Bickerton says: “For scientists, that really resonates. What drives us is bettering ourselves and the rest of humanity through the search for knowledge and just to learn and understand.”

Other researchers have also been inspired by Picard’s style of leadership. In a 2025 interview with Kentucky Alumni magazine, Tracy Drain, a flight systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said that she loved how the character modelled what an excellent leader could be. “He was even-keeled, respectful, kind to everyone,” she said. “He encouraged his crew to think outside the box and supported them in what they needed to do.”

Picard’s influence

On social media, scientists expressed how the character of Picard influenced their scientific careers.

Jordan Harrison, a psychologist in Ann Arbor, Michigan, wrote on Bluesky: “I can trace my initial interest in science, my love of space and astronomy, the seeds of an ethic of care for others different than me, and early memories of bonding with my dad over pop culture to Star Trek: TNG and Patrick Stewart’s portrayal of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. This one hurts.”