Who is professor Henry Higgins?

Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics at the University of London in George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion" and its musical adaptation, "My Fair Lady." He makes a bet with his friend, Colonel Pickering, that he can transform Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl, into a lady with refined speech and impeccable manners. As he works with Eliza, Higgins becomes caught up in the challenge and starts to develop feelings for her, but struggles to reconcile his feelings with his misogynistic and condescending attitudes.