Sergei Chekanov

Person Info

Sergei Chekanov

Main roles: Lead developer, KSF

Joined: 2020

Project(s): EncycloReader.org, ZWINode, ZWIMaker, ZWIBuilder, ZWINetwork, Encyclone

Process(es): Project feedback

Sergei V. Chekanov is a Ph.D. particle physicist who works for the Large Hadron Collider project of CERN. Among his academic work, Dr. Chekanov has published two technical programming books about data analysis using Java and Python, and is responsible for several encyclopedia-related websites, including Handwiki, the wiki-based handbook of science and technology.

In 2020, S. Chekanov was ranked #113 in his discipline according to the H-index, corresponding to a top 30 position among Russian-speaking physicists. . His aggregate H-index is 260, and according to several metrics of the AD scientific index, his academic ranking in the United States ranges from #40 to #100 (depending on the index type) .

Public activity

As a software designer, he was a primary developer of DataMelt scientific program (original name JHepWork|JHepWork (2005), SCaViS for numeric and statistical computations and several other scientific computing projects available from SourceForge.

As a book author on scientific computing, he wrote two books on numerical and statistical computations based on Java and Jython programming languages. The books have been published by Springer-Verlag (2010) and Springer International (2016) . The main focus of the books is scientific computing using Java programming language and the usage of Java scripting languages. According to the Springer International, the latter book was top 25% most downloadable books in 2016 and 2017 in the category "Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing". Since the publication of the book, Springer has detected 34k downloads until April 2019. He is also known for promoting open-source scientific computing for science and education as a founder of the jWork.ORG community portal .

S.Chekanov is a founder, primary designer and maintainer of the HandWiki encyclopedia (launched in Oct 2019) on computing, science, technology and general knowledge. This encyclopedia uses an alternative publication policy compared to what is used in Wikipedia. HandWiki is the #3 world's largest wiki in terms page counts. It has a larger number of articles than in <wipe>Wikipedia</wipe> for more than 10,000 categories dedicated to science and technology. HandWiki is non-for-profit and non-commercial.

In 2020, he joined to the Knowledge Standards Foundation (KSF) team founded by Wikipedia ex-founder Larry Sanger. As a member of the KSF, he started to explore the technical design and software implementations of the Encyclosphere which is expected to unite all world's online encyclopedias . In May 2021, he created a new file format for storing encyclopedic content of wikis and online encyclopedias in general (ZWI file format). In Jan. 2021, he co-authored the FactSeek search tool and then, in 2022, he launched the Encyclone search engine for searches in world's encyclopedias. In Oct. 2021, he designed and programmed EncycloReader that combines a search engine for online encyclopedias with a reader that applies a common standard to view encyclopedic articles.

In July 2024, S. Chekanov published a book titled "The Designed World of Information: Unveiling the Incredible Realm Beyond" . This work explores the concept of synchronicity, first introduced by Carl Jung, and proposes a method for estimating the probability that synchronicity arises from pure chance and randomness. Chekanov applies this new technique to assess the likelihood of synchronicity in various historical coincidences. By demonstrating that the role of chance in these phenomena is improbable, he connects synchronicity to questions about the origin of the universe, biological evolution, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, and the remarkable beauty of natural laws. The book concludes that the synchronicity effect can be seen as evidence for the existence of God, although it does not dismiss the simulation theory. Where science falls short of providing definitive answers, this book offers insights that illuminate our consciousness and its relationship with the informational reality shaping the events and processes of our world. The original text is also available in Russian.

The material of the book by Dr. S.V. Chekanov was used for the videos stories of the YouTube channel "Designed World" , with video stories performed in the "Scientific Neo-romanticism" style, which emphasizes the understanding of scientific knowledge, combined with an emotional connection to nature, and explores the roles of consciousness, spirituality, imagination, and creativity in the age of informational reality. Dr. Chekanov was the principal author of all scripts for the channel’s videos. The accompanying music tracks were composed by Australian artist Scott Buckley, whose cinematic works are released under the Creative Commons license. Over time, this distinctive narrative and visual approach — Scientific Neo-Romanticism — became closely associated with Dr. Chekanov’s book "The Designed World of Information".