In the future, computers will be able to base their decisions on intuition. Professor Jaap van den Herik, director of the Leiden Centre of Data Science, posed this statement today in his Valedictory Address at Tilburg University.

Algorithms solve problems. But which algorithm is best suited to which problem? During his doctoral research, Diederick Vermetten developed methods to figure this out. And that is important for the entire field.

Sonja Boas developed new techniques to study vascular growth computationally. The results of her research provide a better understanding into mechanisms behind vascular growth, which is relevant to the development of medical therapies. She defends her thesis 'Computational modeling of angiogenesis'…

The solar system was formed approximately 4.56 billion years ago. Despite the numerous theories that have been developed over the years, the formation and evolution of the solar system still remain unclear.

‘Rudy van Vliet is always willing to go that extra mile to help us,’ is what students say about him. The lecturer in the Computer Science bachelor’s programme not only teaches his regular courses but also offers additional classes to prepare students for programming competitions. His dedication to students…

Physicians and researchers of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Leiden University are working on therapies for restoring damaged organs such as hearts and kidneys. They are even trying to construct tailor-made organs. Read more on this topic in the new science dossier on Vascular and Regenerative…

On 22 November, Leiden scientist Jan Vonk received an ERC starting grant for his research on the building blocks of mathematics. This grant is not his first this year: in fact, this July Vonk also received a Vidi from NWO. Four questions to the scientist who got two grants this year.

A Dutch collaboration, including the SURF Open Innovation Lab and Leiden Observatory, has won Hyperion Research's HPC Innovation Excellence Award. This is the first time that a Dutch team has won the award. The team received the award for improving large-scale numerical simulations with deep learnin…

When foreign matter enters our body, our immune system has to make a choice whether or not to go on the attack. There are times when the system goes wrong, and we end up with an illness or an allergic reaction. Researchers at LUMC are trying to steer the immune system. The dossier on Immunity, Infection…

This year, two Leiden physicists have earned a prestigious ERC Starting Grant. With a budget of 1.5 million euros, this is one of the largest individual grants for scientists.

Researchers from the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Archaeology, with the support of the communication departments of these Faculties and the VALUE Foundation, has been awarded one of the first NWA-Science Communication and Outreach grant for their plan to produce live-streams via online platform…

To be eligible for Astronomy and Science Communication and Society at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Astronomy at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements. PLEASE NOTE: The specialisation High-Tech Innovation starts in September 2026.

To be eligible for Astronomy Research at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible forAstronomy and Data Science at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Astronomy and Cosmology at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Astronomy and Instrumentation at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Astronomy and Business Studies at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2017, as well as special appointments and royal distinctions.

Learning a programming language is challenging. Even one of the first –but crucial– concepts to learn, variables, is hard to grasp. Variables can represent different roles and functions within a code and need to be named appropriately to support code comprehension and debugging.

PhD defence

To strenghten ties with the public, press, other academics and wider society, LION employs an outreach officer.

From surface science towards industrial practice using high-pressure scanning tunneling microscopy.

Systems with local constraints is a new finding in recent researches on complex systems. The heterogeneous spatial interactions and the temporal dependencies among those numerous units make it difficult to describe by traditional statistical physics.

Multicopper oxidase, laccase, can efficiently reduce oxygen to water and are mostly used in the enzymatic biofuel cells.

It is an established fact that the Standard Model has to be extended to explain the so-called Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) phenomena: dark matter, matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe and neutrino flavour oscillations.

This thesis is dedicated to the exploration of the primordial dark ages: unknown physics during the earliest stages of the Universe’s expansion that have not yet been directly probed by observations. Cosmic inflation is a burst of exponential expansion of space after the “Big Bang”.

In analogy to mathematical proofs, the goal of a proof system is for a prover to convince a verifier of the correctness of a claim.

Metal-based prodrugs based on ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes have proven to be very suitable for application in both photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photo-activated chemotherapy (PACT).

Promotor: M.A.G.J. Orrit

Information for prospective, current and international students

To get an idea of the science communication products and research that is possible, a few examples of student projects of recent years are shown below.

When you apply for admission, you’ll be asked to submit several documents.

When you apply for admission, you’ll be asked to submit several documents.

Making an impact by creating solutions for the challenges of the future. That’s what we do through our education and research in biodiversity and sustainability, artificial intelligence, complex networks, new medicines, quantum technology, and galaxies.

You’ve been accepted! Leiden University looks forward to welcoming you as a new student. Your next step is to prepare for your studies. Below you can find some tips to help you get a head start as you embark on your studies at Leiden University.

You’ve been accepted! Leiden University looks forward to welcoming you as a new student. Your next step is to prepare for your studies. Below you can find some tips to help you get a head start as you embark on your studies at Leiden University.