In addition to the archetypical mad scientist, there are fictional characters who are scientists and engineers who go above and beyond the regular demands of their professions to use their skills and knowledge for the betterment of others, often at great personal risk. This is a list of fictional scientists and engineers, an alphabetical overview of notable characters in the category.
In literature Martin Arrowsmith (Arrowsmith) Joseph Cavor (The First Men in the Moon) – Inventor of Cavorite, an anti-gravity material. Captain Hagbard Celine (Illuminatus) – Captain who fights the Illuminati from his submarine and with his computer, both designed by himself. Norma Cenva (Legends of Dune) – Inventor of the space folding engine. Captain Jaylen Cresida (The Lost Fleet) – Captain in the Alliance Navy under the command of Captain John "Black Jack" Geary, and an expert on hypernet gates. Dr. Claire Deller (I, Robot and other stories by Isaac Asimov) – Chief robot genius of San Diego Robots and Mechanical Men. Martin Dubois (Project Hail Mary) – Scientist. Leonid Gorbovsky (Noon Universe) – Genius scientist, progressor and spaceship captain, known for his ability to land on planets to survive planet-wide catastrophes and make contact with alien civilizations. Dr. Ryland Grace (Project Hail Mary) – Molecular biologist. Leo Graf (Falling Free) – Space engineer who leads a group of genetically engineered four-armed humans known as "quaddies" to freedom. Olesya Ilyukhina (Project Hail Mary) – Materials specialist and engineer. Gennady Komov (Noon Universe) – Xenopsychologist whose main occupation is making contact with and studying alien civilizations. Pardot Kynes (Prelude to Dune) – Planetologist. Melissa Lewis (The Martian) – Biologist and astronaut. Liet-Kynes (Dune) – Planetologist. William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn (Doc Savage) – Archaeologist and associate of Doc Savage. Lt. Col Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair (Doc Savage) – Chemist associate of Doc Savage. Dr. Morel (The Invention of Morel) – Inventor of a machine that records and reproduces reality. The Other Mother (Coraline) Captain Nemo (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and The Mysterious Island) – Ambiguous-to-villainous figure, who later assumes a heroic role. Mindy Park (The Martian) – Satellite communications engineer, mechanical engineer. Rich Purnell (The Martian) – Astrodynamicist. Leonard of Quirm (Discworld) – Super-intelligent clockpunk engineer. Col John "Renny" Renwick (Doc Savage) – Civil engineer and associate of Doc Savage. Maj Thomas J. "Long Tom" Roberts (Doc Savage) – Electrical engineer and associate of Doc Savage. Rocky (Project Hail Mary) – Engineer. Dr. Clark Savage, Jr., aka. Doc Savage (Doc Savage) – Surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, and musician. Arne Saknussemm (Journey to the Center of the Earth) – 16th-century Icelandic naturalist, alchemist, and traveler whose messages guide a group of 19th-century adventurers. Hari Seldon (Foundation) – Mathematician who invents psychohistory. Annie Shapiro (Project Hail Mary) – Biologist. Professor Shonku (Byomjatrir Diary, Professor Shonku o Robu, Professor Shonku o Khoka, Professor Shonku o Corvus, Ek Sringo Obhijaan, Swarnaparni and other works by Satyajit Ray) – World's most respected scientist and inventor and a physics professor at Scottish Church College. He invents several inventions while going on adventures he records in his diary. Cyrus Smith (The Mysterious Island) – Literary example of a 19th-century engineer. Doctor Steel – Real-life musician whose stage persona is a roboticist and transhumanist. Franny K. Stein – Child scientist who invents monsters to combat danger. Tom Swift and Tom Swift, Jr. – Father-and-son team of inventors. Crawford Tillinghast ("From Beyond") – Inventor of a machine which allows perception of normally imperceptible things. Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Dracula) – Nemesis of Count Dracula. Alex Vogel (The Martian) – Chemist, astrophysicist, and astronaut. Mark Watney (The Martian) – Botanist, mechanical engineer, and astronaut. Bertrand Zobrist (Inferno)
Live-action films Individual scientist/engineers in live-action films Dr. Emmett Brown - Back to The Future - A scientist that created the flux capacitor and time travel. Eleanor Arroway (Contact) – A scientist who searches for extraterrestrial intelligence. Bruce Banner (Marvel Cinematic Universe) – A renowned scientist with 7 PhDs and a focus in gamma radiation. Buckaroo Banzai (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension) – A particle physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, martial artist, and rock star. Professor Barnhardt (The Day the Earth Stood Still) – An American scientist who organizes a scientific reception for Klaatu's message of peace. Dr. Glenn Barton (The Man and the Challenge) – A human-factors scientist. Blankman – A science whiz-nerd who believes he is a superhero and becomes one himself. Dr. Amelia Brand (Interstellar) – Biologist. Professor John Brand (Interstellar) – Physicist. Dr. Emmett Brown (Back to the Future) – An inventor of the Flux Capacitor, which makes time travel possible. Seth Brundle (The Fly) – An eccentric but brilliant physicist who invented the telepods, machines capable of teleportation. Sebastian Caine (Hollow Man) – A scientist part of a team that worked on an invisibility serum and its antidote, tested on animals. He goes insane when the invisibility serum tested on him became irreversible. Joseph Cooper (Interstellar) – Engineer, pilot, and astronaut. Murphy Cooper (Interstellar) – Physicist. Walter Curnow (2010: The Year We Make Contact) – American engineer. Jackson Curtis (2012) – A struggling science-fiction writer. Ian Donnelly (Arrival) – Physicist. Dr. Miles Dyson (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) – He learns of the destructive destiny of his future creation and later destroys his research. Dr. Stephen Falken (WarGames) – The creator of the Joshua computer program. Dr. Charles Forbin (Colossus: The Forbin Project) – The designer of Colossus. Dr. Clayton Forrester (The War of the Worlds) Charlie Frost (2012) – A fringe science conspiracy theorist and radio talk-show host. Dr. Leslie Gaskell (Kronos) – He comes up with a way to destroy the giant machine. Richard Hannay (The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle) – A British mining engineer who is the hero in John Buchan's World War I-era adventure novels. Adrian Helmsley (2012) – A geologist and chief science advisor to U.S. President Thomas Wilson. Dr. Newton Geiszler (Pacific Rim) – K-Science Officer in the biologist/research team. Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Pacific Rim) – K-Science Officer in the mathematician/research team. Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (The Rock) – A FBI chemical weapons specialist. Corporal Hardin (Southern Comfort) – A chemical engineer on weekend maneuvers with Louisiana Army National Guard squad in rural bayou country as they antagonize and are hunted down by the local Cajun people. His day job is only relevant to explain his rational sensible approach. Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones) – An adventurous archaeologist. John Koestler (Knowing) – An astrophysicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is killed when the solar flare destroys Earth. David Levinson (Independence Day) – A cable-TV engineer who devises the trick that blocks the alien invasion. der Leitende – LI (Das Boot) – The chief engineer of U-96 portrayed by Klaus Wennemann after real-life chief engineer Friedrich (Fritz) Grade. Melissa Lewis (The Martian) – Biologist and astronaut Dr. Emilio Lizardo (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension) – A physicist whose mind is being controlled by the Black Lectroid, Lord John Whorfin. Ian Malcolm (Jurassic Park) – A mathematician and chaotician who survives several encounters with dinosaurs and other hazards. His mathematical prowess allows him to predict his own fate and that of the park's inhabitants. Dr. Russell A. Marvin (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers) – He invented the weapon that brought down the saucers. Leonora Orantes (Contagion) – A World Health Organization epidemiologist. Q (James Bond) – He makes the gadgets that James Bond uses; he is most often portrayed using the conventional literary trappings of a scientist, such as a white lab coat, though his activities are closer to engineering. Mindy Park (The Martian) – Satellite communications engineer, mechanical engineer. Dennis Parker (Alien) – Engineer. Rich Purnell (The Martian) – Astrodynamicist. Hank Rearden (Atlas Shrugged) – A metallurgist and railroad magnate who created Rearden metal. David Reed (Creature from the Black Lagoon) – In contrast to Mark Williams, a hypermasculine and ultimately destructive scientist. Ellen Ripley (Alien) – An engineer aboard the star ship Nostromo. Romilly (Interstellar) – Astrophysicist. Menlo Schwartzer (Surf II) – A reputedly brilliant chemist. Erik Selvig (Marvel Cinematic Universe) – An astrophysicist who worked with Jane Foster on her Wormhole research, associate of Thor and former partner of Bruce Banner. He later worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. to study the Tessaract. Dr. Daisuke Serizawa (Godzilla) – A scientist who invents the Oxygen Destroyer and uses it to kill Godzilla before destroying his notes and sacrificing himself so that his creation can never be misused. Dr. Jeffrey Stewart (The Magnetic Monster) – He personally destroyed the dangerous substance serranium. Dr. Thomas Stockmann (An Enemy of the People) Dr. Ryan Stone (Gravity) – A biomedical engineer at a hospital in Lake Zurich, who becomes a mission specialist at NASA. Satnam Surtani (2012) – An Indian astrophysicist. Alex Vogel (The Martian) – Chemist, astrophysicist, and astronaut, Professor Wayne Szalinski (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) – The inventor of a shrink ray. Mark Watney (The Martian) – A botanist, mechanical engineer, and astronaut. Dr. William Weir (Event Horizon) – The designer of the titular spacecraft and its FTL propulsion system, the gravity drive. Steve Zissou (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) – An eccentric oceanographer who sets out to exact revenge on a shark referred to as a "jaguar shark".
In live-action television Individual scientist/engineers in live-action television Reginald Barclay (Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager) – A diagnostic technician transferred to the USS Enterprise-D, who later played a key role in a later project which enabled regular contact with the missing Starfleet ship, USS Voyager. Janos Bartok (Legend) – A Hungarian scientist and inventor. Julian Bashir (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) – The chief medical officer on Deep Space Nine. Beaker and Bunsen Honeydew (The Muppet Show) – Beaker is the assistant scientist of Bunsen, scientist and founder of Muppet Labs. Beakman (Beakman's World) – A general scientist who, in a funny and entertaining manner, teaches that science is a fact of life. Walter White (Breaking Bad) – A former chemist who, after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, begins manufacturing meth to provide for his family. Carson Beckett (Stargate Atlantis) – A medical doctor and geneticist who discovers the ATA gene and serves as the chief medical officer for the Atlantis expedition. Sam Beckett (Quantum Leap) – A Nobel Prize-winning quantum physicist with multiple doctorates who is caught in his own time-travel experiment; "leaping" into many lives along the span of his own lifetime. He must change the histories of those around him for the better before he can return home. Brains (Thunderbirds) – An engineer. Samantha Carter (Stargate SG-1) – A United States Air Force officer and astrophysicist whose scientific knowledge and engineering skills are used to combat various threats to her team and to Earth. Dr. Pierre Chang (Lost) – An astrophysicist.