Picard

Picard is a surname of French origin derived from Picardy, a historic region in northern France. It is also used as a toponym and as a demonym for residents of Picardy. The name has appeared across science, mathematics, and popular culture.

Jean-Luc Picard is a fictional Star Trek character, the captain of the starship USS Enterprise-D and later Enterprise-E, introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. Portrayed by Patrick Stewart, the character is noted for diplomacy, leadership, and a commitment to exploration.

Picard crater is a lunar impact crater named after the French astronomer Jean Picard.

In mathematics, the Picard group is named for Émile Picard and consists of the isomorphism classes of line bundles on an algebraic variety, with the operation given by tensor product. The Picard number ρ(X) is the rank of this group for a given variety X. Picard–Vessiot theory, developed by Émile Picard and Ernest Vessiot, describes when linear differential equations have solutions expressible by elementary functions and their associated differential Galois groups. The Picard functor and Picard variety are related constructions that parametrize families of line bundles on varieties.

Beyond these uses, Picard also functions as a regional demonym for people from Picardy and appears in various scholarly and cultural contexts as a surname.