History Main / SoleSurvivingScientist

* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3'', on the planet of Bryyo, you can read the journal entries of the last surviving scientist, as he tries to keep the world from suffering an environmental collapse. [[spoiler:He fails]].

** Eugene Porter claims to be this when he encounters Rick's group. He tells them he is a scientist who knows what caused the zombie outbreak and is working on a way to combat it. [[spoiler:However, it is later revealed to be a lie, as Eugene only used this claim as a cover story to make himself seem important so stronger people with more practical skills for surviving the end of civilization would be willing to protect him.]]

* The Institute in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' are an entire society of this, leaning towards the macabre, depending on the Player's interpretation and actions.

* ''Film/{{Air}}'' follows two technicians (Creator/NormanReedus and Creator/DjimonHounsou) AfterTheEnd as they maintain a bunker filled with {{human popsicle}}s so that the sleepers (scientists key to restoring civilization once the atmosphere is breathable again) won't die in their sleep.

* ''Series/ZNation'' begins by showing one, Dr. Merch, working hard on a vaccine using prisoners as test subjects with a pair of soldiers trying to keep the zombies out. Surprisingly, she succeeds then and there, but the remainder of the show gets taken up by the long journey of other characters trying to get her patient somewhere where someone can actually do something about all of that, while Merch herself gets PutOnABus and fades into the background. Sun Mei in the final season is another one of these who shows up to intercept the main character and try to harvest the cure from him with a bunch of soldiers.

* ''{{ComicBook/Crossed}}'': Generally {{averted|Trope}} due to the grim and/or {{deconstructi|on}}ve nature of the series but not entirely absent. Jack from "Shrink" is an interesting version of this, a psychologist trying to study Crossed. The human antagonist of Volume 3 claims to know of a convoy of these but it's quickly revealed to the audience that he's lying. Professor Nelson looks like an example of this given that before the apocalypse he spoke about something that sounds a lot like the Crossed virus and is hiding in a bunker afterwards with a rescue mission looking for him and his work, but he didn't survive, and it's never revealed if he was actually right with his theory. In "Wish You Were Here", the narrator lampshades the absence of these after the first two years, noting that when they actually do find someone who might be TheImmune if there was a movie they'd rush him to some bunker to make a vaccine out of his blood, but, as far as he knows, there's nowhere left to do that anymore.

* ''{{ComicBook/Crossed}}'': Generally {{averted|Trope}} due to the grim and/or {{deconstructi|on}}ve nature of the series but not entirely absent. Jack from "Shrink" is an interesting version of this, a psychologist trying to study Crossed. The human antagonist of Volume 3 claims to know of a convoy of these but it's quickly revealed to the audience that he's lying. Professor Nelson looks like an example of this given that before the apocalypse he spoke about something that sounds a lot like the Crossed virus and is hiding in a bunker afterwards with a rescue mission looking for him and his work, but he didn't survive, and it's never revealed if he was actually right with his theory. In "Wish You Were Here", the narrator lampshades the absence of these after the first two years, noting that when they actually do find someone who might be TheImmune if there was a movie they'd rush him to some bunker to make a vaccine out of his blood, but there's nowhere left to do that anymore.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead''
** Dr. Edwin Jenner is a depressed and ultimately suicidal scientist found alone in the CDC bunker by the other survivors.
** Later in the series, the group encounters a character named Eugene Porter, who claims to be a scientist searching for a cure to the zombie outbreak. Ultimately, this amounts to nothing, [[spoiler:because, like in the comics, Eugene is lying to make people protect him]]. However, he ''is'' pretty good at {{MacGyvering}} and making things like batteries and new bullets, which proves useful amid the apocalyptic landscape.
** There's also Milton, a scientist in Woodbury who experiments on the zombies, trying to bring out memories of their past lives and find a way to condition them.

** Since surviving the Freeze onboard Big Alice, the Headwoods have perfected a method of instantly healing frostbite injuries and are implied to have experimented on the AmbiguouslyHuman Icy Bob
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': The episode "Quarantine" features a scientist placed in the position of being the only person with the skills to save the day because of society's progression while he was a HumanPopsicle. Matthew Forman is awoken from cryo-sleep solely to help a utopian society that ordinarily shuns weapons technology destroy an approaching invasion ship with his KillSat expertise.
* ''Series/ZNation'' The show begins by showing one, Dr. Merch, working hard on a vaccine using prisoners as test subjects with a pair of soldiers trying to keep the zombies out. Surprisingly, she succeeds then and there, but the remainder of the show gets taken up by the long journey of other characters trying to get her patient somewhere where someone can actually do something about all of that, while Merch herself gets PutOnABus and fades into the background. Sun Mei in the final season is another one of these who shows up to intercept the main character and try to harvest the cure from him with a bunch of soldiers.

* ''Literature/ThePostman'': There's some of these at Corvalis, although they aren't nearly as advanced as they try to get the outside world to think.

** Season 2 OneShotCharacter Frederick, who lives in one of the only areas where adults survived the Big Death, is a computer expert who [[spoiler:played a large role in creating an artificial intelligence for their faction to act as a charismatic leader against the aggression of the Valhalla Sector]].

* ''Series/{{Jeremiah}}'': The main characters father and his assistant Libby look for a cure to ThePlague that killed everyone over the age of thirteen from within the Ravenrock Mountain bunker, although their boss plans to misuse their work. Theo also sheltered and groomed a bunch of nerds from her school to be this on a small-scale, such as by making a working generator.

* In the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novel ''The Eyeless'', the Doctor visits a planet where most of the population was wiped out in an incomprehensible catastrophe. Professor Jeffip does his best to fill the Sole Surviving Scientist role.

* ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'': Several of these are responsible for the backstory, in the aftermath of a war against alien invaders who slaughtered all of mankind except for a couple colony ships. They had a schism about whether or not to get rid of all technology and rewrite history to deter the other survivors from eventually striking back against the aliens, or whether doing so would just cause their descendants to re-establish technology on their own in several generations and go back to the stars, unprepared for any encounter with the aliens. By the present day, the populace remembers the former group as angels and saviors, and the later group as fallen angels, although this viewpoint changes by the final book.

* ''Series/The100'': Dr. Tsing inside Mount Weather is a fairly sadistic version of this and her actions largely spark a war that wipes out her community. In the backstory we have Becca, who invented the AI which destroyed the world, but surviving in space also worked on methods to counter it (correctly deducing it would be a threat again) and invented a lot of stuff relevant during the main story.

* ''Series/TheLastShip'': Rachel and Tophet are this for a while in season one as the only scientists working on a cure aboard an isolated ship. Gradually, we meet various other scientists (some good, some evil) making similar efforts in quarantine zones, some of whom provide aid to the crew of the Nathan James, such as Julius Hunter, Michael Neustadter and Dr. Milowsky.

* In ''Film/{{Cyborg}}'', a group of doctors, the last ones in the country, are working on a cure for ThePlague in an old CDC facility. Prior to the movie's beginning, they created the titular cyborg to venture into dangerous territory and collect data for their experiments.

* ''Film/TheDayOfTheTriffids'': While trying to fight off the attacking plant creatures, Marin biologist Dr. Goodwin discovers that [[spoiler:[[SaltSolution salt water kills them]]]] and quickly moves to work on this.