Many Western defence strategies concentrate on maintaining the status quo. Actively promoting universal values can also be a good strategy for resilience, according to Theo Brinkel, Professor by Special Appointment in Military-Social Studies. Inaugural lecture 15 January.

For first-year bachelor’s students, it is a well-known phenomenon: student mentors. These older students help newcomers on their way in small groups. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year the choice was made to set up a mentor programme for new master's students as well. We talked to three student…

The Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights Research Programme at Leiden Law School had the honor to organise the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research Annual Conference.

Middle Eastern Studies, African Studies or International Relations: all examples of studies that are part of Area Studies at the Faculty of Humanities in Leiden. Within Area Studies you study a region and immerse yourself in (complex) subjects of that region, such as cultural uniqueness, conflicts,…

Wopke Hoekstra, outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Campus The Hague on 6 July to talk to students about the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius.

Professor André Baranski is a champion for improving organ procurement. He believes there should be standardised training and certification for procurement surgeons. This is what he said in his inaugural lecture on 16 April.

This summer, everyone from Leiden locals to day trippers and tourists can take a guided tour of the prettiest University buildings in the centre of Leiden. Our exclusive Summer Tours offer a glimpse behind the scenes at the Academy Building, the P.J. Veth building and Bibliotheca Thysiana: buildings…

Leiden Professor of Astronomy Mike Garrett is searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. In his Kaiser lecture on 23 April he will discuss how far science has progressed in this quest.

The Hague is the archetypal multicultural city. With a different language spoken on every street corner, this makes it a paradise for linguists such as Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade. Her book Languages of The Hague is a collection of fascinating conversations with the city’s non-native speakers.

This year on June 8-12, the Annual Convention of the Austrian and Central European Centres was organised in Leiden. At this convention, directors and (PhD) students from all over the world come together to meet, have presentations by the students on their topics of expertise, and to get the know the…

Have you already chosen your master’s? Visit our Master’s Open Day on 10 March and find out what Leiden University has to offer you. “By visiting the presentation and talking to students and tutors at the Information Market we’re hoping to learn more about the content of the degree as well as job pr…

They are often referred to as ‘The Oscars of the Natural Sciences’: the Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics. This year, the prize for physics went to the Event Horizon Telescope team, which took the first-ever picture of a black hole. Four Leiden astronomers were…

Sara Polak, American Studies expert and University Lecturer investigates how American presidents deal with the media and how new, social media influence our collective memory and the political game. ‘Social media algorithms influence us and our political choices in ways we do not foresee’, Polak say…

Dr. Mark Dechesne, associate professor at the Leiden University Dual PhD Centre (FGGA) will participate asas work package leader in a large new international project on radicalization among young people in Europe.

Cybercriminality and cybersecurity are hot topics, in the academic world as well as elsewhere. But there is room for improvement in this research, says Bibi van den Berg, Professor of Cybersecurity Governance at Leiden University. Inaugural lecture 8 June.

Historian Frank Dikötter will receive an honorary doctorate from Leiden University for his work on the history of the Chinese Republican period and the People's Republic of China under Mao. He will be awarded the honorary degree during the university's Dies Natalis celebrations on 8 February 2017.

Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of NATO, gave a guest lecture at Leiden University on 19 April. His message was clear: increased international tensions call for greater investments in defence. According to Stoltenberg, the Netherlands is not one of the big spenders in this area.

ChatGPT, translation machines and bots: for Carole Tiberius, they are a piece of cake. On 1 January, she was appointed professor of Computational Linguistics. 'There ae two elements to the field: computer science and linguistics.'

The European Union increasingly needs to respond to unforeseen events and developments. This is putting it to the test. What are the effects? Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union Luuk van Middelaar addressed this in his inaugural lecture on 23 September.

The Leiden Hortus Botanicus is the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands. Although perfect for a ramble, it is much more than an open air museum. PhD students carry out their research here and the Hortus makes a serious contribution to biodiversity through the exchange of rare seeds with other…

Leiden University Libraries has made a large number of unofficial poetry journals from China accessible online in its Digital Collections. This opens up thousands of pages from an internationally unique collection of unofficial Chinese poetry for teaching, research, and the general public, including…

As of the 1st of January 2021, Lisa Cheng, Professor of General Linguistics, will be the next Scientific Director of the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL). She tells us about LUCL and shares some of her thoughts about her upcoming role.

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.

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?

Lecture, Sociolinguistics & Discourse Studies Series

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.

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…

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.

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.

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.

PhD defence

PhD defence

Conference

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…

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

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…

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!

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.

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…