In the last weekend of April, the tenth edition of the Benelux Mathematics Olympiad took place. The Dutch delegation won a total of 8 medals. The 17-year-old Nils van de Berg even obtained a golden one!

At the European Girl’s Mathematical Olympiad, which took place from 9 to 15 April in Florence, Italië, Gabriëlle Zwanenveld (17) from The Hague won a silver medal. Christel van Diepen (17) from Arnhem and Anouk Egging (17) from Deventer both won a bronze medal. The fourth team member, Floor Beks (16)…

On Saturday 16 April, secondary school pupils will once again have a chance to sink their teeth into the hardest language-related questions during the final of the Linguistics Olympiad. Professor Sasha Lubotsky and PhD student Cid Swanenvleugel are both former Olympiad winners. Now they are involved…

The Dutch Michelle Sweering became the best math girl in the world at the International Mathematical Olympiad in South Africa. She is the only girl who won a golden medal.

How would you convert Egyptian hieroglyphs into Latin script? And what is actually the correct translation of dishes on a Vietnamese menu? On Saturday 28 January, high school students from all over the Netherlands will come to Leiden to ponder a series of language-related puzzles. Their goal? To win…

With a healthy dose of logic and creativity, mathematics student Lance Bakker shows how computers can prove complex mathematics. His method proves intricate formulas without calculating every intermediate step. It earned him a nomination for the Leiden Science Young Talent Award 2025.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2018, as well as special appointments and royal distinctions.

The Leiden mathematics student Onno Berrevoets won the silver medal during the last edition of the International Mathematics Competition in Blagoevgrad in Bulgaria. During this prestigious competition between mathematics students worldwide, he was able to measure himself to the world top.

The theme for this year’s Week of the Classics (19 to 27 March) is war in Classical Antiquity. Leiden Classics scholars are organising various activities, including the popular Know-Your-Classics Pub Quiz.

How did Google's computer programme AlphaGo become so powerful? On June 29, developer Aja Huang elaborated on this during a lecture in the Gorlaeus building.

The city centre of Leiden is covered in them: wall poems. When roaming around, you come across poetry written in the Latin alphabet, but also in scripts that might be more difficult to understand for the average person living in Leiden. In a new series of videos, Tijmen Pronk talks more about this.

The book ‘The Riemann Hypothesis: A Million Dollar Problem’ has been elected by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) as one of the best books on mathematics. On 13 January assistant professor at Leiden University Roland van der Veen and co-author Jan van de Craats will receive the MAA Beckenbach…

With his essay 'Why science?', mathematics prodigy Lars Pos (18) won the Robbert Dijkgraaf Essay Prize. Within the theme 'The fascinating workings of science', the bachelor student wrote a plea for the societal value of fundamental scientific research. 'Because you don’t know beforehand where we can…

How did Google’s computer programme AlphaGo become so good at board game Go that it could defeat the world champion? On June 29, developer Aja Huang will speak about this during a lecture in the Gorlaeus building.

At the annual World Computer Chess Championship, chess computers from all over the world compete with each other. This year, Leiden University hosted the event.

Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) is an independent institute within the Leiden University Humanities Faculty. A Management Team, consisting of an Academic Director, a Director of Education and an Institute Manager, is responsible for the overall running of the institute. This team is…

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2019, as well as special appointments and royal distinctions.

‘A woman with a mission’. In this honourable way, Dean Geert de Snoo described computer scientist Felienne Hermans at the official opening of her new research group Programming Education Research Lab (PERL). He is right: Felienne has a very important mission. With her new research group, she will do…

Data Science & AI student Nataliia Bagan combines a passion for mathematics, language, and artificial intelligence. Her exceptional bachelor’s thesis on improving reasoning in large language models earned her a nomination for the Leiden Science Young Talent Award 2025.

On 28 June, ten dedicated lecturers received their Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO). Rector Hester Bijl congratulated them in an online meeting. We asked some of them what this qualification means to them, what they believe ‘good teaching’ entails and what makes them so passionate about education…