Professor Challenger

George Edward Challenger is a fictional character in a series of fantasy and science fiction stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Unlike Conan Doyle's self-controlled, analytical character, Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger is an aggressive, hot-tempered, dominating figure. Like Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger was based on a real person—in this case, two people: an explorer named Percy Fawcett, who was Conan Doyle's friend; and a professor of physiology named William Rutherford, who had lectured at the University of Edinburgh while Conan Doyle studied medicine there. Fictional character biography George Edward Challenger, FRS, MD, DSc, is born in Largs, Ayrshire in 1863 and educated at Largs Academy before studying at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Challenger is appointed to an assistant position at the British Museum in 1892 and is promoted within a year to assistant keeper in the Comparative Anthropology Department. He holds a professorship in Zoology and is elected President of the Zoological Institute in London. Several of his inventions are successfully applied in industry and bring him additional income.