With a special symposium at Museum Boerhaave, ESO celebrated its 60th anniversary on Monday, 26 September. More than 100 scientists, politicians and people from industry were present to look back on collaborations, milestones and discoveries. Leiden astrochemist Ewine van Dishoeck was one of the pre…

In the beginning of December 2016 PhD candidate Catarina Guzzo Falci was awarded a scholarship for a collections study by Musée du quai Branly. The Musée du quai Branly has implemented this scholarship programme to document its collections.

The Republic of Indonesia celebrated its 75th Independence Day on 17 August 2020. As a gift to celebrate this, on the initiative of a group of Leiden alumni*), a biography will be written of Leiden and Indonesian scholar Hoesein Djajadiningrat.

Combining geometry and number theory. That is what Dr Jan Vonk of the Institute of Mathematics receives a Vidi grant for today. ‘By fusing these two disciplines we may be able to solve a century-old mathematical problem.’

Traditionally, at the beginning of each new calendar year, Leiden Law School awards the Meijers Prizes for the best article in the previous year for each Faculty research programme.

Improving lives and fostering integration with Big Data

I recently went to the anniversary celebration of The Meeting Point, and the stories the refugee students told made a huge impression on me. The Meeting Point helps students from different backgrounds feel part of our university community.

Doctors should work with patients with bone and soft-tissue tumours to find the best personal treatment strategy says Prof. Michiel den de Sande. He has developed an app that helps choose the right treatment. Van de Sande was appointed Professor of Orthopaedics with a particular focus on paediatric…

The coronavirus pandemic has had us working and studying at home, and this has had a positive effect on Leiden University’s sustainability results. This is apparent from the university’s new Sustainability Report 2020. The report also shows that nearly all the targets from the Environmental Policy Plan…

Starting April 13 a brand new exhibition is open for visit, titled 'Above and Beyond: Making Sense of the Universe for 100 Years

Within the scope of innovating and connecting – the theme of our new Strategic Plan – I paid a visit to Brussels last week. It is important to give Leiden University a face in Brussels and to show our expertise, on Africa for instance.

History student Mitchell Wiegand Bruss is taking part in the water council elections. Whereas until recently he had no idea what the governing body stands for, he now wants to create awareness among other students about the political body.

Unconventional superconductors form one of the big mysteries in physics. Among them is strontium ruthenate, which stands out as a controversial superconductor. During his PhD, Leiden physicist Kaveh Lahabi has provided new insights into the nature of superconductivity in this material, leading to a…

The History programme has been working for several years to make the curriculum more diverse and inclusive. With a Comenius grant, university lecturer Kim Beerden wants to take the next step.

Below you will find the answers to some of the frequently asked questions about admission to the clinical specialisations of the Master in Psychology.

Below you will find the answers to some of the frequently asked questions about admission to the clinical specialisations of the Master in Psychology.

Below you will find the answers to some of the frequently asked questions about admission to the clinical specialisations of the Master in Psychology.

Below you will find the answers to some of the frequently asked questions about admission to the clinical specialisations of the Master in Psychology.

Below you will find the answers to some of the frequently asked questions about admission to the clinical specialisations of the Master in Psychology.

No decorated signs on an overfull Lammermarkt but instead a video meeting that gradually fills up and the inevitable question of ‘Can everyone hear me?’ The 51st EL CID introduction week began online this week, on Wednesday 5 August. Because of the corona measures, most of the programme has been converted…

Martijn Manders conducts research on the sunken VOC ship De Rooswijk. Tirzah Schnater from the Ministry of Education, Culure and Science produced this impressive report of the work of this underwater archaeologist.

Every student learns about science, but those of the Master Honours Class ‘The Academic Life’ went an extra mile. They learned all the ins-and-outs of academia and rounded off this successful lecture series with a final session on evaluating scientific research.

On 11 and 19 April, the International Leiden Leadership Programme students got together to participate in a Business Game: a simulation game where the participants get a business case-study they have to solve. The goal? An agreement between all stakeholders – but most importantly: to employ the different…

Two radio telescopes in Green Bank, West Virginia have brought together a few remarkable people. A new photo exhibition in the Old Observatory visitor centre gives an insight into the remote community. Due to the corona crisis, the Observatory is not open to the public. That’s why we’ve selected a few…

It's now possible to measure how many plastic particles there are in our food. Chinese scientists and Leiden professor Willie Peijnenburg applied their new method to lettuce and wheat. Their results were published January 20 in Nature Nanotechnology.

Professor of Pharmacochemistry Ad IJzerman has won the Nauta Award for his years of research into signal processing proteins that are interesting for the development of new medications: G protein coupled receptors. The prize is awarded every two years for services to pharmacochemistry and chemical b…

On the menu of the LLP Skills Café no beer and snacks, but communication skills as listening, resolving conflicts, and giving feedback. ‘Once you really learn to listen, you become a better leader and nicer friend.’

Digitalisation can make a huge contribution to a greener future, but it must also be as sustainable as possible. To make significant progress, more collaboration and national leadership will be needed. Leiden University has therefore signed the Digital Sustainability Manifesto, which was presented on…

Lotte Croiset van Uchelen has worked at IT company Schuberg Philis for 11 years now. What makes this company so special? Ever since its foundation, only colleagues have worked there. No boss, no management. ‘Why would you need a manager?’

Funded by a ZonMw grant, the LUMC and the Health Campus The Hague will be working with headache patients on research into the use of an electronic headache diary. This resource can help patients gain a better understanding of their migraine attacks and, together with the physician, produce the best…

It’s often said that citizens have lost trust in their governments. But who exactly are these ‘citizens’? And which aspects of people’s contact with government agencies work better than others? These questions will be discussed at the Crafting Resilience conference (working language is English) on…

Grondstoffen werden vroeger over duizenden kilometers afstand vervoerd. Waarvoor werden ze geruild en waarom sloten mensen in West-Azië zich aan bij deze handelsnetwerken?

Medicines do not follow the one size fits all principle, because genetic differences can influence their efficiency. That is what research by PhD candidate Julia Hillger shows. She defends her PhD dissertation Take it Personal on Thursday 7 December.

If a pill containing no active ingredients still helps, this positive expectation is called a placebo effect. A negative expectation is called a nocebo effect. Both can be produced by verbal suggestions and conditioning. According to Andrea Evers’ research group, combining these is the most promising…

Organ transplantation is often subject to ethical, economic and political discussions. In the Honours Class Organ Transplantation, students take part in these discussions to get a better understanding of the many different views on transplantation.

For many new international students, moving to the Netherlands and getting used to Dutch culture and customs can be quite challenging. Luckily the Humanities Buddy Programme is here to help! The new coordinator of the programme, Bob van der Horst, will introduce himself and explain more about the buddy…

Thousands of curious students and parents are visiting the Open Day on 5 March. How do they get a good idea of the study programmes and the city?

Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, may be used as an alternative treatment option when antibiotics fail. Leiden researchers have studied the structure and function of a novel bacteriophage that could be used to treat one of the WHO bacterial strains of concern where new treatments are urgently…

Most young alumni who graduated during the COVID-19 pandemic did not get a graduation ceremony, nor did they have the chance to sign their name in the Sweat Room. Thanks to the Alumni Office, they now have the chance to do so after all.

An international team of researchers led by Alice Booth (Leiden University, the Netherlands) have discovered methanol in the warm part of a planet-forming disk. The methanol cannot have been produced there and must have originated in the cold gas clouds from which the star and the disk formed. Thus,…

On 21 March The Netherlands Centre for Electron Nanoscopy (NeCEN) hosted the Life Sciences Café. Around 60 people from neighbour companies from the Leiden BioScience Park visited the facility for cryo-electron microscopy to get a glimpse behind the scenes. Head of NeCEN Ludo Renault believes it was…

Political scientist Wouter Veenendaal received an NWO Veni grant for his research on the political stability of small states. 'I find small states fascinating, they are almost always excluded from comparative research, while in fact they often challenge existing theories in political science.'

This year the PhDs of the institute had their traditional day out (uitje) to The Hague. The last two years they had stayed in Leiden, so The Hague already seemed like quite the adventure. Indeed, it seems almost that as time progresses and more and more archives become digitized, history PhDs slowly…

Yuvraj Birdja converted CO2 to formic acid to store energy in a sustainable way, with different catalysts. With this new knowledge, scientists are a step closer in industrially converting CO2 to chemicals and fuels. This can help reduce CO2 emission and the greenhouse effect.

Journalists in the Netherlands are unhappy about the handling of their requests under the Dutch Open Government Act (Wet open overheid, Woo). They say these requests take too long, produce too little results, and that communication could be better.

‘In recent publications about the slave trade the same rhetorical weapons are used as two centuries ago in the battle for the abolition of the British slave trade. It is a topic fraught with emotions, but that should not prevent historians from being as careful and impartial as possible in their research,’…

The Bolivian people will make their opinion known on a change to the constitution in a referendum on 21 February. Leiden University organised a symposium on the referendum on 11 February. The aim of the change is to allow President Evo Morales to remain in power until 2025.

On 24 September the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) in Leiden will launch the new version of the Pesticides Atlas in cooperation with Rijkswaterstaat and Royal HaskoningDHV. The online tool is now faster, more user-friendly, more accessible and all data can be downloaded directly. Users can…

The group structure of Jihadist networks changes rapidly, which makes it difficult to monitor them. This is the finding of research by criminologist Jasper de Bie. PhD defence 14 April.

On 11 October 2019, the 5th CML Rev. on Tour conference took place in Paris, at the beautiful Salle des Conseils in Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University.