Hi, I’m Alex.

I’m a software developer at the Wellcome Trust and an open-source Python developer. At Wellcome, I’m helping build a new platform for searching and storing our digital collections. It’s taking Wellcome’s assets – books, archives, images, and more – and presenting them through consistent, well-designed APIs.

I contribute to open source Python in my free time, including the Hypothesis testing library and the hyper-h2 HTTP/2 stack. I’m one of the organisers for the PyCon UK conference, and I’ve given a number of talks about Python (among other topics).

The site focuses on programming, with the occasional venture into accessibility, maths, bits of travel advice and Victorian engineering. It’s as a way to sharpen my skills in writing, and improve my ability to explain my ideas. If that sounds interesting, I have an infrequently updated blog.

I hope you enjoy the site.

Recent posts

15 May Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time
13 May Creating a locking service in a Scala type class
1 May Finding unused variables in a Terraform module
28 Apr Reversing a t.co URL to the original tweet
23 Apr Some tips for conferences

Contact

You can email me at alex@alexwlchan.net, or I’m @alexwlchan on Twitter.

For anything related to Wellcome, email a.chan@wellcome.ac.uk.