Jan Stanisław Franciszek Czerski (Russian: Иван Дементьевич Черский, Ivan Dementyevich Chersky; Lithuanian: Jonas Čerskis; Belarusian: Ян Чэрскi) (1845–1892) was a Polishpaleontologist (osteologist), geologist, geographer and explorer of Siberia. He was exiled to Transbaikalia for participation in the January Uprising of 1863. A self-taught scientist, he eventually received three gold medals from the Russian Geographical Society, and his name was given to a settlement, two mountain ranges, several peaks and other places. He authored the first map of Lake Baikal and died during an expedition to Kolyma.

Son of Dominik and Xenia Czerski, a family of Polish nobles (szlachta) he was born on 3 January 1845 in Swolna, partitioned Lithuania, then Vitebsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in Belarus). At the age of 18 as a high-school student in Vilna (at the Instytut Szlachecki (Noble Institution)) he took part in the January Uprising (1863); taken prisoner on 28 April 1863, he was stripped of his noble status, his lands were repossessed by another family member loyal to the Russian government, and Czerski was finally forcibly conscripted into the Russian Army and exiled to Siberia (to Blagoveshchensk near Amur River) by the Russian authorities. He never made it to Blagoveshchensk, and was detached to serve in the formation near Omsk. During that time he was taken in by some other Poles (Marczewski, Kwiatkowski) living in exile in Omsk region, as well as Russian geographer, Grigory Nikolayevich Potanin. With their help he became interested in the natural history of the region. They provided him with literature on Siberia and natural sciences, and during his free time he self-educated himself and carried out his first research.