The worldwide race to the quantum computer is in full swing. This computer can take on computing tasks that we can only dream of today, such as finding proteins that can be used as medicines in seconds flat. Leiden physicists have discovered how the Majorana particle can be used as a building block…

What can we learn from how maritime conflicts were managed in the past? What significance did Maritime Conflict Management have in shaping the standards of diplomacy and international law in pre-modern Atlantic Europe (1200-1600)?

This book explores the links between maritime trading networks around Europe, from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic to the North and Baltic Seas.

The main goal of the THEOR CHEM group, headed by Prof. Geert-Jan Kroes, is to characterize, and to accurately predict the outcome of chemical reactions at gas-solid and liquid-solid interfaces. Here the solid surface is typically a metal or an ice surface. These goals are important to many areas in…

The “harpe organisée”, 1720-1840: Rediscovering the lost pedal techniques on harps with a single-action pedal mechanism, is the title of Maria Christina Cleary's PhD thesis. This is the first monographic study on harp pedal techniques, tracing the historical way to pedal on the early pedal harps with…

Leiden’s Institute for History has an exceptionally strong expertise in premodern European history in its global context, with specialists whose interests cover virtually the whole continent.

Online cursus The Importance and Power of Music in our Society

Making the most vibration-free, cryogenic scanning tunneling microscope in the world. A bold mission, but one that PhD candidate Irene Battisti successfully executed together with the Fine Mechanical Department. The new microscope might shed light on how unconventional superconductivity works. PhD Defence…

Former PhD, Bachelor and Master students of the Van Exter Lab

The Cryogenics Department has a liquid helium production unit and an automatic liquid nitrogen filling plant.

1) Assess the trends in supply and production status of these critical minerals and mineral products worldwide and Europe’s dependence including on intermediate products such as permanent magnets, RE based super alloys, batteries, polishing compounds, phosphors, catalysts etc. 2) Trace the entire value…

One of the stained glass windows in the Great Auditorium of the Academy Building is dedicated to the students and staff of Leiden University who resisted, protested against, or became victims of the German occupiers. It depicts female figures alongside male ones.

In the Catalysis and Surface Chemistry group, we investigate how catalysis works on the molecular level. The group is divided in six subgroups, focusing on different aspects of heterogeneous catalysis, homogeneous catalysis and electrocatalysis.

Book by Dr. Mariana Françozo resulting from her research into the collection of count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, governor of the Dutch colony in Northeastern Brazil between 1637 and 1644.

In a network- and case-based programme on management, business and entrepreneurship we focus on science-driven companies and exploiting business opportunities created by research.

Research at the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) is foundational and curiosity driven. All our scientists share a desire to increase the knowledge of the world around us, in an open atmosphere of inquiry from which innovative ideas emerge that provide applications and value for society.

Life returned to something resembling normal after Covid but other crises soon took its place. These great challenges are also being felt at the University and our researchers are working on solutions. The nitrogen crisis, problems with young people’s services and an increasingly urgent climate crisis:…

High-temperature superconductivity is one of the big mysteries in physics. Milan Allan’s research group used a Josephson Scanning Tunneling Microscope to image spatial variations of superconducting particles for the first time, and published about it in the journal Nature.

It’s not something the police force wants to see, but it still occurs: racist and misogynist police conduct. Human rights specialist Dr Linda Louis has studied how technology could help police officers behave correctly and comply with the applicable legal norms.

Stack two layers of graphene, twisted at slightly different angles to each other, and the material spontaneously becomes a superconductor. Science still can't explain how something so magical can happen, but physicists use special equipment to reveal what is taking place under the surface.

The quantum nature of matter and light has grown into a broad and fruitful research field for theorists and experimentalists alike. It combines foundational research with toward applications, the most well known of which is the quantum computer.

The oldest university in the Netherlands has produced many well-known scientists. Some of them are known to the wider public; others are perhaps less well known, but their achievements are no less impressive.

We explore the possibilities to combine magnetic resonance techniques with atomic force microscopy together in a single microscope: the MRI-AFM, also called Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM).

In Quantum mechanics, particles can be in multiple positions simultaneously. Yet, when a measurement is made, the particle is found only in one place. Technology has come to a point where we may design experiments that will tell us how.

Isotopes on exoplanets, a more efficient memory for data centres or new molecules that work against the Zika virus and HIV. Which PhD candidate has written the most impressive dissertation of 2023? The jury of the C.J. Kok Jury Award faces the challenging task of deciding that. Meet the nominees of…

Knowledge is everywhere at Leiden University. It is also accessible for those who do not study or work at the University.

The Physics and Quantum Matter and Optics specialisation is one of the two programmes Leiden offers in experimental physics. The programme can be tailored to individual needs and interests.

The Joan van der Waals colloquium is an ongoing bi-weekly lecture series.

Twenty years from now, the world population is estimated to be around 9 billion people (now 8 billion). In combination with the improvements in living standards and the corresponding growth in consumption, this population will result in an enormous increase in the demand for food, consumables, water…

In Renaissance Florence, humanists wrote Latin poems fashioning their city as the new Rome, and members of the Medici family as Roman rulers. How can we explain this practice?

In early medieval England, there was an interest in the history of the Roman Empire and kings adopted such imperial titles as 'imperator' or 'basileus'. How can we explain this interest and what functions did imperial ideas and the reception of the classical world serve in early medieval England?

Conference, Workshop

Scientists at TU Delft and Leiden University have observed supercurrents in graphene that bounce back and forth between the edges of the graphene without scattering along the way.

Two events on Music and the Brain will be held in Leiden later this month.

Lecture, Studium Generale

Leiden University regularly confers honorary doctorates, and presents awards and prizes.

Five Leiden researchers have been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This grant of up to two million euros will enable them to continue and expand their scientific research.

Claire Weeda, Robert Stein, and Louis Sicking have published a collection of essays in honour of Em. Prof. dr. Peter Hoppenbrouwers - also the former Scientific Director of the Research School of Medieval Studies. The contributions can be consulted freely online.

The project has been done in the QMO group under the supervision of Dr. Michiel de Dood.The title of the presentation is: ''Superconducting transitions of MoSi nanowires around the critical current.

Physicist Joost Frenken was interviewed on the radio show 'Langs de Lijn en Omstreken' (Radio 1) about the recent discovery of superconductive graphene. The one-atom-thick material was already known for its strength, flexibility, lightweight and good conductivity.

The project has been done in the QMO group under the supervision of Dr. Michiel de Dood.The title of the presentation is: ''Counting photons with a superconducting single photon detector.

Live from the ASMS Conference 2015 in Saint Louis: Baljit Ubhi, our Metabolomics Specialist, has a coffee with Rawi Ramautar, Assistant Professor at the Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research.

On March 28th, the book "Elke provincie een eigen gouden eeuw" (Each Province Its Own Golden Age), edited by Louis Sicking, will be released by Prometheus Publishers. Twelve authors each examine a province in detail and focus on an aspect of its history whose significance extends beyond the region i…

Majorana particles have been getting bad publicity: a claimed discovery in ultracold nanowires had to be retracted. Now Leiden physicists open up a new door to detecting Majoranas in a different experimental system, the Fu-Kane heterostructure, they announce in Physical Review Letters.

Are Weyl particles the ideal conductors? Do cells without a cell wall play a role in chronic Tuberculosis infections? Carlo Beenakker and Dennis Claessen want to answer these questions. They both received a KLEIN grant from the NWO. With these grants, NWO wants to stimulate innovative, fundamental r…

Richard Chancellor, the English Willem Barentsz, discovered the North Cape during the first English expedition to attempt to find a northeast passage. But the ship, the Edward Bonaventure, was ‘robbed by Flemings on its return in 1554.’ Historian Louis Sicking and legal expert Remco van Rhee found the…