Dutch speedskaters have been winning the most medals in speed skating at the Winter Olympics for years. How? Based on their intuition. Scientist Jeroen van der Eb of the Data Mining & Sports group of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) wants speedskaters to adjust their irons based…

This thesis aimed to investigate core cross-linked polymeric micelles (CCPMs) and expand their potential for the delivery of hydrophobic drugs and co-factors.

Dear friends of the NVIC

A specifically designed collection of gears is soft on one end and rigid on the other. These are robust properties of the system that hold even in the presence of manufacturing imperfections. This emerging research area may lead to new ways of designing geared devices like satellite trackers or watches.…

Researchers from Leiden see hungry villagers in the north of Cameroon steal meat from the prey of lions. The researchers from Leiden University's Institute for Environmental Sciences (CML) reported on this kleptoparasitism in the online publication of the African Journal of Ecology in July.

How designers are even more creative with a robot in their team, how Twitter could predict the stock market, and how to catch a single bacterium in the act of infecting a cell. Artificial intelligence has penetrated every corner of science in Zuid-Holland. Three researchers from Delft University of…

LIACS receives grant from Intel for research and development of innovative technology to program multi-processors.

In large numbers, lecturers from the History study programme responded to the call to share tips for online and hybrid education. Everyone can now take a look at these tips on the university website, says chair of education Kim Beerden.

PhD defence

Sander Kok (35) was a hit as a model for Armani and he is now making a name for himself as a writer. His philosophically tinted first novel 'Smeltende vrouw' was acclaimed as a literary sensation. How do Literature Studies and Art History benefit him today?

Farmers do not love them all. Microbes can cause tragic consequences for crops. Even the presence of just one pathogenic fungus or bacterium can drastically reduce yields. Still, there are exceptions. In that case, a pathogenic microbe is present in the soil, but does not cause any harm. Adam Ossowicki…

Since 1992, Professor Thijs van Kolfschoten, has been excavating at Schöningen.

Now that university buildings have closed, most staff members have started working from home. How are Faculty of Science colleagues faring in their new offices?

Joanita Vroom, Associate Professor Archaeology, regularly tries out old recipes, together with a group of Archaeology students. 'You really need to love garlic.'

On 7 and 8 October 2016 Leiden Law School received a visit from the external review committee, led by Mr Fred Hammerstein. This review committee reports on the results of research performed at the faculty and provides advice on how these results can be improved in the future. The assessment of the research…

The Institutes board and the board of Education of the Institute of Public Administration also include a student member. The student member attends the meetings of the board with and represent the interests of the students. In this message she briefly introduces herself.

In context of Anne Helder’s defense of her doctoral thesis, we had the pleasure to welcome Prof. Kate Cain for a symposium last week.

Source: Br. J. Pharmacol., Volume 172, Issue 3, pp. 940-55 (2015)

Dr. Foks obtained this fellowship for the project “Can promotion of efferocytosis induce regression of atherosclerosis?”, in which she aims to identify novel targets to promote regression of atherosclerosis. This research grant allows her to initiate independent research for the next three years.

“Neighborhood solidarity cannot compensate the absence of the State: a response from the local administration is needed”

A Dutch-led team of astronomers has discovered that high-mass stars are formed differently from their smaller siblings. Whereas small stars are often surrounded by an orderly disk of dust and matter, the supply of matter to large stars is a chaotic mess. The researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter…

Callum is from Ireland, Sharitah is from The Hague and Kirsten is from Manilla. The new students taking part in the HOP week from 19 to 23 August come from all corners of the world. The HOP week is the introduction week for students at Leiden University in The Hague. The diversity of the student population…

New ways of working like working from home can have a positive impact on a person’s career, but only when their superior supports their choice. Researcher Maral Darouei will defend her PhD thesis on sustainable careers on 9 June 2020.

How do students start asking more questions on a museum visit? Let them free an Egyptian princess from a sarcophagus! In the minor Living Education Lab, students from TU Delft, Leiden University and Erasmus University Rotterdam designed an escaperoom.

On March 21 2018, a study was published in Nature, co-authored by Professor M. Soressi from the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University, announcing the sequencing of five new Neandertals, raising the number of high-coverage sequenced Neandertals from two to seven. A tooth lost by a Neandertal woman…

More than a thousand 17th- and 18th-century Dutch letters from seized ships are now available online. The letters are a gold mine for researchers wanting to study the everyday language used by men and women during this period.

SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research is moving. In 2021, the Utrecht branch will settle in South Holland. Assistant professor at TU Delft, Akira Endo leads a project that builds a state-of-the-art instrument for astronomical research. ‘SRON is the key to go from proof-of-concept to a science-grade…

A bike tour is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about inequality. However, students of a Master Honours Challenge came up with this and other solutions to tackle local inequalities. Creativity and empathy turned out to be useful ingredients.

We are delighted to announce that the funding of the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS) will be continued from 2018 until 2020!

Laura Migliori receives a research scholarship from the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR, Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut Rome).

An international team led by Leiden astronomers has, after years of searching and defying the boundaries of a telescope, for the first time directly captured polarised light from an exoplanet. From this light they can deduct that a disk of dust and gas orbits the exoplanet. In this disk moons are possibly…

Every month a member of the Institute for History tells about a book that inspired him or her. Afterwards, the pen is passed on to another colleague. This month dr. Robert Stein tells about the book 'La Vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert' by Swiss writer Joel Dicker. It is not so much the whodunit that…

Thursday 12 July the first Leiden Leadership Lunch took place. In the boardroom in Wijnhaven there was an informal lunch with researchers, students and managers from the field. Science and practice found each other around the theme leadership and added public value.

The 'deepest and sharpest' image of the Universe to date: the first photos from the new James Webb space telescope yesterday mesmerised astronomers and the public alike. Leiden Professor of Molecular Astrophysics, Ewine van Dishoeck, spoke to various media outlets about the first images, which include…

At the end of the year we always compile a list of our most interesting, most popular articles from that year. In the crazy year that was 2020 one topic was at the forefront of everyone’s minds: coronavirus. Fortunately, there was also room for other stories.

Activities of Thalia Hoffman and Basma Hamdy

How were Spanish commanders fighting in the Low Countries between 1567 and 1577 portrayed in Spanish and Dutch narrative sources during the Eighty Years War?

On 17 October 2022, Jan Aart Scholte contributed to a conference plenary roundtable on 'From Internet Governance to Digital Political Economy'. Click here to find out more about the event.

For all the artworks that Riccardo Giacconi creates, he begins by conducting extensive research. He discovered three stories about rebellious characters that were transmitted through unofficial channels: as characters in puppet shows or in folk tales. He translated the three stories into three cycles…

On 24 February school pupils came looking for their dream programme in a packed Pieterskerk. Did they find what they were looking for? And does an Open Day help?

A fragment of a human skull discovered in sediments extracted from the bottom of the North Sea, 15 km off the coast off the Netherlands, has been identified as belonging to the extinct Neandertal group.

Of the 17 Rubicon grants that NWO recently awarded, three have gone to researchers at Leiden University. They can spend a longer period of time doing research at an institute abroad.

Want to explore a different specialist field? Or maybe study a topic from your programme in more depth? This summer Leiden University is again offering a broad selection of Summer Schools.

Comparing gazes between Turin and other cities in the global north.

A delegation from Leiden University will be visiting Mexico from 21 to 25 October. The visit aims to strengthen the ties between Mexican universities and Leiden University.

Knowledge of Islam and of Muslim societies is indispensable when trying to properly understand the globalising world, as well as changing Dutch society. Researchers from Leiden are therefore immersing themselves in the languages, culture and religion of Muslim societies. Their work and insights can…

Islamic banking, freedom of religion, LGBTQ+ acceptance and education are topics that European Muslims find important for their future. These are the results of a survey by Professor of Islam and the West, Maurits Berger. The survey is the starting point of a citizen project in which Berger wants to…

Leiden chemists, together with colleagues at the University of York (UK) and Technion (Israel) have discovered a small, sugar-like molecule that maintains the integrity of tissue around a tumour during cancer. This molecule prevents tumour cells from spreading from the primary cancer site to colonise…

Criticism from doctors in the Netherlands about the policy to combat coronavirus is becoming louder. A letter raising their concerns was signed by one thousand doctors. It calls for a new debate on the current measures to deal with the crisis which were recently tightened. Supporters of the letter believe…

Two terrifying yellow eyes stared at eleven-year-old Francis Lesilau. In the evening light they changed colour: green, amber, back to yellow... The lion had just grabbed one of his camels and now turned to number two. For a moment Francis was nailed to the ground, then he ran towards the predator, screaming.…