Every year, at 8:30 pm on the last Saturday of March, millions of people across the world join in raising awareness of the issues facing our planet.

Observations made with the ALMA telescope in Chile and ESA’s Rosetta mission, have detected the faint molecular fingerprint of methyl chloride in gas, a chemical commonly produced by industrial biological processes on Earth, around both an infant star and a comet. Methyl chloride, also known as Freon-40,…

Although seen as the fastest and cheapest way to global climate protection, a uniform global carbon price would have major consequences for the economic competitiveness of countries. Hauke Ward, who recently joined Leiden University, showed in the journal Energy Economics that modern western countries…

Astronomer Alvaro Hacar received a Veni grant for his ORION-4D research on the birth of stars.

Dutch astronomers have measured a superstorm for the first time in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, the well-studied “hot Jupiter” HD209458b. The very high-precision observations of carbon monoxide gas show that it is streaming at enormous speed from the extremely hot day side to the cooler night side…

An international team of laboratory astrophysicists and astrochemical modellers has shown that glycine, the simplest amino acid and an important building block of life, can form under the harsh conditions that govern chemistry in space. The results have been published this week in Nature Astronomy and…

One unravels the origin of the largest black holes in the universe, the other investigates the influence of stellar wind on the atmosphere of exoplanets. Both Elena Maria Rossi and Aline Vidotto receive a Vici grant for their research into the mysteries of the universe. ‘I have no idea yet how we can…

On this page you will find an overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2023, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

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

Science for Sustainable Societies offers an exciting combination of theory and practice. While analysing and examining relevant topics from both the natural and the social sciences domains, you will also gain lots of hands-on experience. Interactive learning is an important part of the programme. You…

30 Years of Pale Blue Dot - 14 February 2020, Kaiserzaal, Old Observatory - The Pale Blue Dot Symposium is an event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the iconic picture showing the Earth as a tiny speck in the vastness of space and to discuss its impact on humankind. At the end of the symposium,…

Two Leiden scientists - Ignas Snellen and Bernhard Hommel - have been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant. The grant will fund their research over the coming five years on exoplanets and free will.

The METIS instrument that’s being built for ESO's future Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in Northern Chile under the leadership of the Dutch Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) has reached an important milestone: the preliminary design has been approved.

An international team of researchers with Pascale Ehrenfreund from Leiden University has discovered that the dust particles of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko are made up of even smaller particles. This discovery confirms that clumps of dust form the basis for comets and planets.

The French Astronomical Society SAF (Société Astronomique de France) has awarded its international astronomy prize, the Jules Janssen Prize, to Leiden professor and IAU president Ewine van Dishoeck for her scientific achievements.

After 25 years, this December will finally see the launch of the long-awaited James Webb space telescope (JWST). Leiden astronomers are watching with great excitement: not only were they involved in the construction of important instruments on board, but the telescope will also reveal many new secrets…

An unprecedented space telescope, an astrolab that makes space ice and molecules that may lead to the origin of life… The Ice Age project has all the prerequisites to become a very fascinating research project – if it is not one already. Leiden astronomers Melissa McClure, Harold Linnartz and Will Rocha…

Professor Ewine van Dishoeck, together with an international team of colleagues, has written an overview of everything we know about water in interstellar clouds thanks to the Herschel space observatory. The article, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, summarizes existing knowledge and…

What clothing is best to buy if you want to consider the environment? That question isn't so easy to answer. You have to consider the entire life cycle of a garment: from production to the moment we dispose of it. In the segment 'What's better?' of the radio programme Living Planet, environmental scientist…

Asteroids, pieces of matter orbiting round the sun, have turned out to be extremely valuable. Asteroid Psyche contains a quantity of metals that together are worth more than the entire global economy. NASA is heading for it.

The environment also benefits when people follow national nutritional guidelines, Paul Behrens demonstrated in research published in PNAS. The publication attracted media attention both at home and internationally.

On the occasion of the Women & Girls in Science Day, BBC Science Focus Magazine highlighted 6 prominent female chemists. Among them is Leiden professor Ewine van Dishoeck: 'Astrochemist investigating the building blocks of life'.

Five Leiden astronomers tell about science in the podcast Astronomy et al. This podcast was set up by Ricardo Garcia Soto in September 2016 and is focused on anyone who is interested in science.

It’s better to cut our nitrogen emissions now than to solve the consequences later at great expense. That’s the lesson we can learn from the Dutch nitrogen crisis, according to nitrogen expert Jan Willem Erisman. In Science, he shares this lesson with other countries. According to Erisman, we should…

A study of the International Union for Conservation of Nature has identified tree species native to Indonesia’s Kutai National Park that are resilient to climate change. The species support threatened East Bornean orang-utan populations; therefore, the study recommends their use in reforestation efforts.…

Two radio telescopes in Green Bank, West Virginia have brought together a few remarkable people. A new photo exhibition in the Old Observatory visitor centre gives an insight into the remote community. Due to the corona crisis, the Observatory is not open to the public. That’s why we’ve selected a few…

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…

An international team of scientists including Leiden's Joe Callingham has discovered nineteen red dwarf stars that unexpectedly emit radio waves. The outbursts possibly originate from interaction with exoplanets. The results of the research appear in two scientific publications.

Astronomer Jos de Boer has received the Chesneau Prize in Nice for his research into so-called protoplanetary disks. The prize is awarded to the best astronomical dissertation in the field of high angular resolution. 'I consider it a good opportunity to talk about my research.'

For the first time, astronomers have detected the presence of complex organic molecules, the building blocks of life, in a protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. The discovery reaffirms that the conditions that spawned the Earth and Sun are not unique in the Universe. The results are published…

Starting 2 July 2022, a new exhibition will be opened to the public at the Old Observatory: More-than-Planet. This exhibit asks the question: how do we imagine our planet?

A moon rock from the Apollo 17 mission, antique globes and the cosmos according to Wassily Kandinsky. Ewine van Dishoeck, Professor of Molecular Astrophysics, has put together an impressive exhibition at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave.

When stars are born, large clouds of gas and dust form that are known as circumstellar discs. Research by PhD candidate Francisca Concha-Ramírez shows that strong radiation from neighbouring stars soon evaporates the dust in these discs, which can prevent planet formation at an early stage. PhD defence…

A team of Leiden astronomers has managed to calculate the first 100 million years of the history of the Oort cloud in its entirety. Until now, only parts of the history had been studied separately. The cloud, with roughly 100 billion comet-like objects, forms an enormous shell at the edge of our solar…

Can astronomers mitigate climate change? This is what Leiden astronomer Leonard Burtscher and his colleagues discussed at the annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society. For the second year in a row, the meeting was online. And according to Burtscher, it should stay that way. During a special…

From the effects of hormone fluctuations in women via the interior structure of giant planets to the prehistory of the languages: six Leiden researchers have been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council.

Large telescopes can look so deep into the Universe that they can also look back billions of years in time. From 2018, the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, will be able to see the period just after the Big Bang, when the first stars and galaxies formed. Astronomers…

The Leiden Faculty of Archaeology is a world renowned academic centre for the study of the past. Our archaeologists and heritage experts are involved in innovative projects all over the world.

In honour of Krijn Rietveld (1956 - 2018), Leiden University Fund and dsm-firmenich have created the Krijn Rietveld Memorial Awards to reward researchers who make extraordinary efforts to bring about an impact beyond scientific understanding in the field of life sciences, health science, biotech, or…

Ending the United Kingdom’s (UK) forty-seven year European Union (EU) membership has fundamentally transformed its relationship with the EU. After years of tumultuous negotiations, international law now once again governs the UK’s relationship with the EU. This has resulted in a sophisticated body of…

Vaccines are an extraordinary category of biopharmaceuticals. They are usually prophylactic and come in many types, from whole bacteria to peptides and nucleic acids. They are very cost effective and almost every human on the planet is vaccinated. The latter mandates that vaccines have to be extremely…

It is not man’s ingenuity, but rather materials that are the source of innovation and progress. This is what archaeologist Maikel Kuijpers concludes based on his research into craftsmanship and material processing in the Early Bronze Age.

To maximise your personal development, we ensure tutorials are small-scale and staff members extremely accessible. In year one, you’ll have an average of 12 contact hours, half of which comprise lectures (in English) and the remainder tutorials (optionally Dutch or English).

The awards honour Krijn Rietveld’s vision of science that creates real-world impact. Explore how the programme evolved, how the awards are structured today, and the values that continue to inspire researchers across disciplines.

The international bachelor's programme in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology covers three years, allowing you to establish a firm foundation and specialise in topics that you find interesting.

WORLDING AMERICA researches how ‘play’ has been a key force in the past and present process of creating America as a coherent and hegemonic ‘world,’ from 1503 to the present.

LUC's Liberal Arts and Sciences programme offers you the opportunity to specialise in one of six Majors while keeping the Global Challenges at the centre of your studies.