Researchers are joining Star Trek fans in mourning the death of Patrick Stewart, the actor whose portrayal of Captain Jean-Luc Picard helped shape many scientists’ ideas about thoughtful, ethical leadership. Stewart, who died on October 28 at the age of 86, played Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987 to 1994 and in several films in the franchise.
As captain of the USS Enterprise, Picard leads his crew on intergalactic missions in the 24th century, encountering new worlds and civilizations. For many scientists, the character represented the qualities of a strong scientific leader: curiosity, calm judgment, kindness and a willingness to listen.
“His immediate thinking was to look at all angles and ask questions,” says Sarah Bickerton, a public-policy researcher at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. More importantly, she says, Picard listened to his crew. He considered the views of crew members regardless of rank before making decisions, an approach that influenced Bickerton’s own leadership style. She says she consults research assistants and graduate students about important decisions.
One film that influenced Bickerton was Star Trek: First Contact (1996), in which Picard travels back in time to the 21st century and explains that money does not exist in the future. “We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity,” Picard says.
“For scientists, it’s something that really resonates,” Bickerton says. “What drives us is to better ourselves and the rest of humanity through the quest for knowledge and just by learning and understanding.”
Other researchers have also been inspired by Picard’s leadership. In a 2025 interview with Kentucky Alumni magazine, Tracy Drane, a flight-systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said she admired the way the character modeled good leadership.
“He was calm, polite and 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
Scientists took to social media to describe how Picard’s personality influenced their careers in science.
Jordan Harrison, a psychologist in Ann Arbor, Michigan, wrote on Bluesky that Picard and Star Trek: The Next Generation shaped their early interest in science, love of space and astronomy, and developing ethics of caring for people different from themselves. Harrison also linked the series to early memories of bonding with their father through popular culture, writing: “This is heartbreaking.”
Source: www.nature.com