The research groups within the biological, soft and complex systems research area study the physics of a broad range of biological and soft materials. This spans both experimental and theoretical research.

Can we make quantum devices from quantum surprises? And can we explore and build life from the nanoscale up?

List of Support Departments at LION and the Faculty of Science

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

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.

Read about protecting heritage, the LDE traineeship and the importance of international postdocs in the summer edition of the LDE Magazine.

The Gorlaeus Building will be constructed in three phases, with the new building due to be completed by 2028.

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The skin has recently gained attention within body studies for its many specific cultural and social associations, in addition to its biology. This project aims to examine the different layers of meaning and the functions invested in the skin in ancient Greece: how did ancient Greek literary and medical…

In this dissertation I argue that the proto-daoist text the Zhuangzi and the ethical relation of Levinas are fruitful resources to reconsider the self-other relation in comparative philosophy.

Chenyu Cheng defended her thesis on 6 April 2017.

D.P. Kok defended his thesis on 10 October 2017

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World-class research is integral part of the master’s education. You obtain a Physics degree from an institute with an international reputation. Research in this programme is fundamental and curiosity-driven.

Physicists at the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) conduct fundamental research into physical phenomena. They are inspired by curiosity and the desire to know more about the world in which we live. This research has always paved the way for new practical applications. These are something that the…

The Physics and SCS master specialisation gives you the opportunity to combine Physics research with different aspects of science communication.

LION offers a PhD program in which candidates carry out independent research on a specific topic, culminating in a PhD thesis.

The Physics and Education master specialisation gives you the opportunity to combine physics research with an excellent education in becoming a physics teacher.

The programme will give you the opportunity to choose from a broad range of topics to study. You will be part of an international multidisciplinary research team at the LION.

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.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2020, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

The programme offers you the ability to combine experimental research with theoretical courses. The programme helps you grow into an independent and skilled physicist.

Cambridge University Press has published a new book co-authored by researchers from Leiden University, offering both an introduction to machine learning and deep neural networks, and an overview of their applications in quantum physics and chemistry — from reinforcement learning for controlling quantum…

PhD candidates carry out a programme of independent research and additional (limited) course work, culminating in production of a PhD thesis in typically 4 years.

This thesis described the development of novel scanning tunneling microscopy techniques to investigate strongly correlated electronic states in quantum matter.

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Quantum critical metals at vanishing fermion flavor number.

Imagine scanning lion dung or a mouse dropping and instantly knowing exactly what and how much the animal has eaten. Thanks to new DNA techniques, this is becoming increasingly feasible. PhD student Kevin Groen tested how effective these techniques are at unraveling the diets of wild animals.

An online course to teach our international students their first words in Dutch, American presidents in Leiden and how Neanderthals made the very first glue: view a selection of our most read English news in the past year.

The compulsory reading list is infamous among secondary school students, and for all the wrong reasons. This prompted the Faculty of Humanities and the Onderwijsnetwerk Zuid-Holland (South Holland Education Network) to launch the Alternative Reading List Award, in search of books that motivate young…

The red carpet treatment of expats, terrorism studies and women professors who took over the Senate Chamber. These are the best read articles of 2018.

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

I will give a general introduction to the field of molecular electronics, its history, methods and challenges. I will also introduce the subject of my investigation and provide a brief outlook to the remainder of our thesis.

In my thesis I study Majorana fermions from three different perspectives. The first one corresponds to non-interacting Majorana fermions that, however, pose non-trivial topological properties. The second one corresponds to strongly interacting Majoranas and the third to relic neutrinos. No one knows…

Promotor: Prof.dr. D. Bouwmeester

Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. J.W.M. Hilgenkamp, Prof.dr. J. van den Brink

In the thesis we demonstrated an 85% state transfer efficiency between two mechanical modes coupled to a common optical mode via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in the classical regime. We also showed possibilities to manipulate quantum states of the mechanical modes via STIRAP.

The Leiden University Green Office is pleased to announce the details of its Spring Event, which will consist of a poetry reading and a clotheswap!

The connection between programming and reading seems non-existing. Yet in the new reading book ‘De Programmeerbende’ they go together very well. On 26 February author Inge Strijker and co-inventor and computer scientist Felienne Hermans launched the book at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer…

Promotor: J.W.M. Frenken, Co-Promotor: R. Felici

Promotor: C. W. J. Beenakker, Co-promotor: J. K. Asboth

The thesis describes experimental steps towards reduction of friction on the macroscopic scale by scenarios of thermo- and superlubricity well-known on the nanoscale.

Visualising structures of life

Optical cavities are useful tools to enhance the interaction between light and matter, which is important to make good quantum emitters. However, it turns out that the cavities themselves (without any quantum emitters) are already interesting objects to study.

In this thesis, we examine various systems through the lens of several numerical methods.