There isn't much to the character in the Doyle stories, and he serves more as a plot device than a well developed character. So I kinda think people are trying

There isn't much to the character in the Doyle stories, and he serves more as a plot device than a well developed character. So I kinda think people are trying to hard to find a RL souce for the character. Most of the brief treatment Doyle gives the character can be explained as plot driven. He's super-intelligent and evil because he needs to be a worthy enough opponent to kill of Holmes. He's a Prof at a small University because he needs a job that both proves his intelligence and is prestigious, but gives him enough time to run a criminal empire. He runs his criminal enterprise via a web of intermediaries because if he was directly involved Holmes could just report him to the cops instead of needing a complicated plan to roll up his criminal network. The specific references to his scientific work might be inspired by some specific scientists, but it seems at least as likely they just sounded to Doyle like the kinda thing a 19th century mathematical genius would get up to.