Actor Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Credit: RGR Collection/Alamy

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.…