In our lab, we investigate the physics and material properties of low-dimensional systems.

Metal complexes and 2D materials like graphene were combined to produce structures that can function as sensors.

Research groups in the Quantum Matter & Optics programme investigate electronic properties of matter and light-matter interactions with emphasis on quantum information.

Nature publishes an article on a paradoxical discovery in superconductivity. Physicists are searching for superconductivity at high temperatures so that less cooling is needed in for example MRI machines. News & Views article by Prof. Jan Zaanen in the same issue of August 19th.

Promotor: H.J.M. de Groot

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.W.M. Frenken

Inverse problems are problems where we want to estimate the values of certain parameters of a system given observations of the system. Such problems occur in several areas of science and engineering. Inverse problems are often ill-posed, which means that the observations of the system do not uniquely…

Have you ever wondered what makes immigrants legally different no matter which legal system they have moved into and no matter what rights have been granted there? Have you ever wondered why immigrants are considered ‘the other’ despite claims that their ‘integration’ and non-discrimination is a top…

Artificial photosynthesis aims to produce fuels from solar energy using chemical processes. In semi-artificial photosynthesis, a hybrid approach is taken using both chemical and biotechnology approaches. We aim to develop hybrid systems between light-harvesting nanoparticles and redox-enzymes (oxidoreductases)…

Electrons in graphene behave like light particles; they have no mass and can penetrate everything: very useful if you dream about nano-electronics. But you do have to channel them. Carlo Beenakker will be researching how. He has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of 1.5 million euro to carry out this…

Governments are increasingly facilitating the roll-out of so-called “smart meters”, a technology for measuring energy consumption that are able to transmit and receive data using a form of electronic communication. However, implementation has been slow or even stalled.

How do bacteria sense and adapt to their environment? Ariane Briegel, Professor of Ultrastructural Biology, is intrigued by this question. Using new techniques, she produces three-dimensional images of bacteria that provide us with new clues about their sensory system.

Truth is stranger than fiction. In 1997 Juan Maldaceña discovered a remarkable dictionary that translates equation for equation the physics of black holes in string theory into the more conventional physics of quantum mechanics of interacting particles. The remarkable possibility exists that…

How to access the end-of-supply risk of spare pares using big data analytics

The project Multimedia Research and Documentation of African Oral Genres: Connecting Diasporas and Local Audiences (Director: D.Merolla) focuses on multimedia as technology that allows scholars to share documentation and scientific knowledge with the cultural owners of the collected oral genres.

Research groups in the Biological & Soft Matter Programme unravel mechanisms in biological processes and develop novel bio-inspired soft materials.

PhD defence

Electrons in a crystal lattice have properties that may differ from those of a free electron in vacuum.

This perspective addresses four challenges facing theorists whose aim is to make quantitatively accurate predictions for reactions of molecules on metal surfaces, and suggests ways of meeting these challenges, focusing on dissociative chemisorption reactions of H2, N2, and CH4.

The logo of Leiden University, with letters as small as a bacterium. Researchers from LUMC and the Institute of Biology have created the smallest logo of our university ever produced. It is a piece of fun with a serious real-world application: the new microscope with which the logo was made allows scientists…

Α-synuclein, a protein associated with Parkinson’s disease, proves to bind with membranes in a surprisingly efficient way. It confirms scientists’ suspicion of the protein’s leading role in the transmission of neurotransmitters between nerve cells in the brain. Publication in PLoS ONE.

The Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) is to be joined by a further two talented young chemists. Bela Bode and Michele Pavanello have each won a Marie Curie subsidy. Bode will be studying electron transport in photosynthesis and Pavanello will be using computer models to study charge transport in large…

Promotor: K.E. Schalm, Co-promotor: S.S. Lee

Triplet superconductivity refers to a condensate of equal-spin Cooper pairs (pairs of electrons with equal spin).

Promotor: R. Gill, Co-promotor: P. Massart

The main research theme in the group of Dennis Hetterscheid is to understand and mimic bioinorganic multi-electron processes that are relevant to our future energy infrastructure. Reduction of protons generates hydrogen that can be used as a chemical fuel. Alternatively to gaseous hydrogen, the reduction…

How can novel bioimaging technologies and vertebrate model species be used to gain a better understanding of early cellular behaviours with the ultimate goal to increase our understanding of human development and disease processes?

Three projects with Leiden researchers are to receive a subsidy from NWO for the construction or renovation of large-scale research facilities. They will be working on electron microscopy, an X-omics initiative and an X-ray telescope. The projects are part of the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Scientific…

Leiden University policy requires researchers to make all their Leiden-affiliated peer-reviewed articles available.

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Theorists have recently made substantial progress in simulating reactive molecule-metal surface scattering but still face major challenges. The grand challenge is to develop an approach that enables accurate predictive calculations of reactions involving electronically excited states with potential…

An objective of this research was to achieve direct, well-defined and non-rate-limiting electron transfer between respiratory enzymes and the electrode surface by means of 'Q-wires'.

Geometric phases lead to a nontrivial interference result when an electron's different quantum mechanical paths choices encircle a magnetic coil in an Aharonov-Bohm experiment.