Osmium

Osmium is first and foremost a respected scientist, professor of anthropology and evolutionary biology, combining his deep interests in history and life sciences. In general, his best skills lie in careful, thorough analysis; he has no problem checking data sheets, row by row, number by number, for errors and inconsistencies. Likewise, he'll go combing through piles of old documents and books looking for just one detail, and he can be a very good proofreader, able to spot all the typos and grammatical errors in a relatively long text.
Famously, Osmium is very conservative, and will just stick to his old habits without a VERY good reason. "I'm used to it like this" is, in his view, a near irrefutable argument; I wouldn't advise debating this one, because have you ever had an encyclopedia thrown at your head? (That's no hyperbole: normally surly but harmless, Osmium's been known to become very scary and even physically aggressive if pushed far enough, so careful.) In science, he's often the one opposed to new theories. In a way, his method - meticulously picking over his and others' work looking for mistakes - can be quite useful. However, Osmium really takes it too far at times, and he's been known to dig in his heels and refuse to go along even in the face of clear evidence, famed at every institution where he's taught for his violent refusal to change his dated views.

Random facts:
- He is a staunch atheist, and not really the tolerant sort either... as he likes to claim, he simply does not accept anything with no evidence to support it.
- He doesn't have the best eyesight out there even with glasses, they help but not completely. He often laments this fact, as it makes reading and writing difficult, but has more or less learned to live with it and his thick 8 dioptre glasses, sometimes supported with a small magnifying glass. (It must be all the years spent looking down microscopes and poring over small text...)
- He's not very healthy in general, having a chronic cough and shortness of breath due to smoking, and bad joints. Due to this, he's most often found just... sitting around, and he walks with a cane.
- He actually has quite a bit of respect from other elements. People will immediately clear a seat for him when he enters the room, and such.
- A heavy smoker, and he also drinks quite a lot. Wherever he goes, an ashy, dusty aroma of expensive cigars and old books accompanies him, sometimes with a faint trace of vodka and juniper in the mix.
- When writing, he refuses to use anything other than a fountain pen or a typewriter.
- Beware, for he is an absolutely merciless literary critic, surely not above figuratively or sometimes literally tearing the thing to shreds if it's really bad. I really don't recommend taking your work to be critiqued by Osmium if there's any chance at all that it's actually trash. (Run it through someone less savage first. Preferably not Iridium either...)