Hey, is Prof otherwise known as limelight based on the Rush song of the same name. I noticed a few lyrical/thematic parallels, such as "one must put up barriers to keep one's self intact" obviously akin to his force fields and more subtle ones like "I can't pretend a stranger is a long-awaited friend" echoing how he met David. As a huge Rush fan I am not entirely partial to this idea but there at least seem to be a lot of consistencies between the song and the character.
(as a new member I can't post a link but it's not hard to look up)