A neural network mimics how our brain works. Evolutionary algorithms use the principle of natural selection to solve complex problems. This kind of 'natural computing' is being used to improve the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease or the production of steel.

Promoting academic equity for students with ADHD through evidence-based accommodations and inclusive teaching methods in higher education.

Optimally solving real-world expensive Black-Box Optimization (BBO) problems w.r.t. real-world constraints, such as wall-clock time and computational costs, is extremely difficult and tedious.

Behind the scenes, many different people are involved in the projects within the Brave Little Ones research group. See below for an overview of the research team.

The Psychology Research Seminars are organised by and for institute staff. They offer an opportunity to share knowledge, gain new insights, and meet colleagues from various disciplines.

There is an increasing amount of attention on EU and its Member States contributions to implementation of two landmark agreements: the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Agenda 2030 with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Absent from the current literature is an analysis of the political effect of…

This project explores how changes in diet helped early hominins expand from Africa into the colder and more seasonal environments of Europe.

In the spring of 2024 the Faculty of Archaeology welcomed a new postdoc. Dita Auzina, originally from Latvia, works as a researcher in the project of Alex Geurds. ‘I have joined the project as a landscape archaeologist, but I also run my own fieldwork in Nicaragua.’

In Montreal, the 34th Meeting of Parties on the Montreal Protocol (MOP), dealing with ozone layer damage, just ended. This protocol is ratified by all countries in the world and is very successful. Shiming Yang, a university lecturer and member of the Leiden University Global Transformations and Government…

What is the influence of non-hereditary factors on our health, such as lifestyle, diet and exposure to harmful substances? The Exposome-Scan project, led by Leiden professor Thomas Hankemeier, has been awarded 3.2 million euros from the NWO Investment Grant Large programme to answer this question. With…

Freshwater is an important resource, but at a great risk of species decline due to habitat loss, pollution and over-exploitation, and invasive alien species.

Promotor: S.M. Verduyn Lunel, Co-promotor: O. van Gaans

Andrew Littlejohn published the article 'Ruins for the future: Critical allegory and disaster governance in post-tsunami Japan' in American Ethnologist about the ruins left by Japan's 2011 tsunami.

This pilot project will initiate research on how heritage has been and can be mobilized to address climate change governance in Himalayan Asia. Climate adaptation strategies frequently include the sourcing of heritage, encompassing landscapes, built environments 4 and cultural practices. However, effective…

Arjen Doelman (Leiden University), Max Rietkerk (Utrecht University), Ehud Meron (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) and Isla Myers-Smith (University of Edinburgh) received an ERC Synergy grant of 10 million euros with their RESILIENCE project. The researchers will investigate whether and how tipping…

Promotores: W.T. de Groot, M. Tchuenté, Co-promotor: J.P. Cheylan

LUCDH facilitates workshops that promote the acquisition of skills and knowledge in employing digital tools. Workshops are held in person, and rarely hybrid.

Wetland plants are distinguished from plants of other terrestrial ecosystems by their adaptations to specific habitat stresses, including waterlogged and flooding and the subsequent abundance of phytotoxic compounds.

Eine Archäobotanische untersuchung zu Umwelt und Landwirtschaft der Ältesten Bankkeramik.

Materials that are built up from individual granules exhibit a special phenomenon called ‘jamming’. With research into the nature of this phenomenon, a team of scientists led by Leiden physicist Prof. Martin van Hecke has made it to the cover of the prominent journal Physical Review Letters. ‘Jammed…

Rich, white, urban: Western politicians often represent a small segment of the population. Political scientist Hélène Landemore advocates for a more inclusive democracy. She will deliver the Cleveringa Lecture on November 26.

This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of Leiden University’s Faculty of Medicine with Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Tanzania.

Cláudio de Sá predicted the preferences of people using rankings. He adjusted ‘classical’ machine learning approaches, making them suitable for predicting preferences. His work can be applied in the prediction of election results. PhD defence on 16 December.

Scientists remain puzzled by the sudden extinction of Neanderthals, some 40,000 years ago. New research by scientists from Eindhoven University of Technology, Leiden University and Wageningen University now suggests we might have been too quick in attributing the demise of Neanderthals to invasions…

CERQ is a questionnaire measuring cognitive coping strategies developed by Dr. Nadia Garnefski and Dr. Vivian Kraaij.

Promotor: C.U. Keller, Co-Promotor: F. Snik

Lecture

Below thesis archives will be moved shortly (work in progress) to the Leiden Repository. Once this is done, theses submitted by MI students (from 2008 onwards) can be accessed via the Repository and will be removed from this site.

Astronomers have used data from the European Gaia Space Telescope to discover 55 high-speed stars launched from the young star cluster R136 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This increases tenfold the number of known “runaway stars” in this region. The team of astronomers,…

Studying surfaces of solid materials: it may not seem relevant to energy consumption, but it is. Marcel Rost studies how platinum electrodes wear out. Those electrodes are a crucial component in the fuel cells of hydrogen-powered cars. ‘We need to make the switch from fossil fuel energy to hydrogen.…

Florian Herrendorf has won the Fruin Prize 2023. His thesis was chosen out of 11 nominees as the best master's thesis in history studies.

In order to reduce the great flow of asylum seekers the Netherlands – and also other European countries – is faced with, the review of the entitlement to family reunification could be tightened. Under current legislation, refugees with a residence permit are – under certain conditions – eligible for…

The monograph

Why do opposites attract? According to Karin van der Tuin, researcher at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), it could be because of your DNA. The more you differ from one another, the better. She will be testing her ideas at the Lowlands festival Lowlands, where she will subject visitors to DNA…

How can we understand the encounter between communities active in sustainability initiatives and governmental agents at the multiple institutional layers in the Netherlands?

An environmental and palaeo-economic reconstruction.