Last year, LUCSoR welcomed a new colleague: Yves Menheere. At the start of his position at LIAS, he applied for and received a starter grant. Read in this interview what he plans to do with the grant and learn more about his research on Taoist priests. Yves has also shared some photos from his field…

With the aid of physics and a minuscule magnet, researchers have discovered a new structure of telomeric DNA. Telomeres are sometimes seen as the key to living longer. They protect genes from damage but get a bit shorter each time a cell divides. If they become too short, the cell dies. The new discovery…

Leiden Madtrics: metrics and matter that matters is officially live today! The blog is launched to invite the community to contribute on topics that pertain to the research landscape, and any topics related to social studies of science, technology and innovation.

Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor of Immigration Law and member of the Dutch Advisory Council on Migration, explains on Dutch radio programme ‘Met het Oog op Morgen’ why it’s a bad idea to use Denmark as a model country for Dutch asylum policy.

Why is the sky blue? Why are most people right-handed? Why are spiderwebs so strong? These are just some of the questions arriving at Postbus 71, a Leiden2022 project where everyone can ask their questions. Friso de Hartog, the driving force behind Postbus 71, is busy answering as many questions as…

The group structure of Jihadist networks changes rapidly, which makes it difficult to monitor them. This is the finding of research by criminologist Jasper de Bie. PhD defence 14 April.

How did people move and form communities when human societies first shifted from hunting and gathering to farming? A new study of the Neolithic period in southwest Asia, the birthplace of agriculture, offers fresh insights.

When you stretch an elastic band, it gets longer. But imagine a material that actually becomes shorter when you pull on it. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Yet that’s exactly what physicists from Leiden University, AMOLF, and ARCNL have managed to create.

Alireza Nouri comes from Tehran, Iran, and is currently in his third year of the bachelor’s in International Studies at Campus the Hague.

'This one is really for the coffee lovers out there, but tea drinkers and co. need not tune out because this spot has got more to offer than just coffee.' Rachel Quennell, student of International Studies in The Hague, is a mine of information for lovers of good coffee.

Did you know that algorithms can help with the prevention of air pollution and ships sinking in the sea? A team of Leiden University researchers have worked together with the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to look in data-driven inspection of ships. In this interview, Gerrit Jan…

What is it like to work in the consulting industry? Twenty-five students from the bachelor programme Informatics & Economics visited the consulting firm BearingPoint, where they innovated the business model of a telecom company.

Citizens still see great value in science communication and want to be increasingly involved in science. This is evident from research by the National Expertise Centre for Science & Society (NEWS) and researchers from the Science Communication and Society department at Leiden University.

Nearly all students have faced many challenges this academic year. Students Nasreen Javanjoo (Religious Studies) and Marcos Cordova (Literary Studies) talk about their experiences of studying in the time of coronavirus.

Why use Google Maps when you can also calculate your bike route based on your own data. Statistician and cyclist Alexander Dürre sees statistics in everything around him. He analyses data of soccer games and calculates the possible winners of cycling races. ‘When I have too much time, I apply statistics…

History can be found in utensils and in interviews with ordinary citizens. ‘With the reconstruction of everyday life, an anthropological approach works better,’ thinks historian Jan-Bart Gewald. Inaugural lecture on 6 June.

Last January, the education assessors of the different study associations chose Fouzia Lghoul-Oulad Saïd of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) as teacher of the year. Her passion for teaching extends beyond her classes, according to the students who nominated her: ‘ She is always ready…

Bring together young academics from all disciplines: that, in a nutshell, is the mission of Young Academy Leiden. And this fledgling organisation is already proving to be somewhat of a success. This is evident at the first Young Academy Lunch at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

Jongeren kiezen vrienden met een vergelijkbare achtergrond, zoals etniciteit en gedrag. Dit concludeert pedagoog Janna Fortuin in haar promotieonderzoek.

In her daily life, she is a student of Life Science and Technology, but not this summer. Guusje van Bolhuis is participating in the Olympic Games with the French hockey team. ‘Studying and playing hockey at top-level are very different, but with the right mindset, you can go far in both.’

Opera, more so perhaps than most other forms of art, is deeply intertwined with philosophy and politics. For some composers this was explicitly so. Think of Wagner’s relation with Nietzsche and Schopenhauer or Verdi’s role in Italian unification. But almost any opera raises, and tries to grapple with,…

A splendid milestone after seven years of collaborative research on the sustainable development of the Indonesian economy. Professor of Industrial Ecology Arnold Tukker has been appointed as a guest professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business of Universitas Padjadjaran (UNPAD) in the Indonesian…

The percentage of female professors at Leiden University has risen to 31.2 per cent. These are the results of the Women Professors Monitor 2021 published by the Dutch Network of Women Professors (LNVH). This puts Leiden University above the national average of 26.7 per cent.

Recent study led at the Leiden Observatory has observed Orion with unprecedented detail. New data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and other telescopes have been used to create this stunning image showing a web of filaments in the Orion Nebula. These features appear red-hot…

Due to the corona crisis, they had to switch to online education halfway during their course: associate professor Marcel Schaaf and PhD candidate Michiel Hooykaas of the Institute of Biology Leiden talk about digital practicals, online lectures and their biggest obstacle: exams.

Many children experience trauma and if they are unable to deal with it properly, it can have a huge personal and societal effect. Building resilience in vulnerable children and young people should therefore have the highest priority. This is the message of Anne-Laura van Harmelen, Professor of Brain,…

bachelorstudent Serafine Beugelink ontwikkelt kaartspel over elementaire deeltjes en deeltjesfysica. Ze zet succescol haar eigen bedrijf op.

Two researchers at the Faculty of Archaeology have received a Veni award from the Netherlands Organisation for Academic Research (NWO). This award offers promising young researchers the opportunity to further develop their ideas for a period of three years.

A rapid increase in the demand for construction sand is driving shortages and inequality around the world. Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University have mapped the growing need for sand, as well as the bottlenecks and possible solutions. They have published their…

James Webb life’s building blocks

The world abounds with different footprints that calculate human impact on the environment. Environmental specialist Kai Fang is the first person to have developed a family of footprints that allow better measurement of environmental damage and the depletion of natural sources. PhD defence on 24 Nov…

The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world, Antony Lowenstein, Verso Books, 2023

Starting September 2022, Foteini Tsigoni is tasked by the Faculty of Archaeology to bring the different nationalities within the faculty community together. Herself an international student, she experienced culture shock wile adapting to the Dutch way of life, and is committed to help out new and current…

Most people would not even consider it, starting a PhD at the age of 62. However, for the former Teylers Museum curator Bert Sliggers it was like a dream that came true: ‘The opportunity I was given felt like a gift, it brought me and Teylers Museum a lot.’

The financial system needs complexity theory to predict economic crises like the 2008 meltdown. An international team of scientists, including Leiden physicist Diego Garlaschelli, state this in a paper published in Science on February 19th.

Mathematical biologists from Leiden have developed a model that helps to explain how the spine and vertebrae, among other things, form during embryonic development. The same process, the other way around, plays a key role in cancer metastasis. Publication in iScience.

‘If it rains later, then I’ll take the car.’ In order to reason, we use sentences containing ‘if’ every single day. But how does that work exactly in the Dutch language? Alex Reuneker wrote his 628 page dissertation on the subject. Ceremony on 26 January.

Ramsey Albers wins Political Science Master’s Thesis Prize 2022

Kalsang Gurung is the first Tibetan to obtain his PhD in Leiden. He carried out research into the accounts of Shenrab Miwo, the founder of the Bön religion. Gurung demonstrates that these accounts do not reflect historical reality. PhD defence: 31 May.

Sander van Kasteren (Professor of Molecular Immunology) makes the invisible visible. He will explain more in his inaugural lecture.

Psychologist Floor van Meer won the first Trial & Error Award for her research on the effect of being distracted while eating on eating behavior. This award from the Journal of Trial & Error (JOTE) honors the often underappreciated aspect of research: learning from errors. For her publication, Van Meer…

Adolescents who were more popular among their classmates in junior school are often the ones who are more inclined to share things fairly with others. During this sharing process, 'social' areas of the brain are more strongly activated than in adolescents who are less popular. This is the finding of…

With the start of June, the annual Leiden Archaeology Field School has begun. Like last year, the Field School takes place in Oss. Every week, a group of 25 first year students gets to learn the ins and outs of a professional excavation.

For months, students dedicated themselves to a more sustainable world alongside their studies, as part of the LDE Sustainability Honours Programme. What solutions did they come up with for the challenges posed by organisations like Naturalis and ClimateMatters?

More than 200 students completed their Bachelor’s degrees in combination with a three-year Honours programme last year. On 15 November, this resulted in a record number of certificates since the start of the Honours College 9 years ago. While listening to personal speeches, the students received their…

This academic year, researchers from both inside and outside of Leiden Law School took the opportunity to inform the interested public about their ongoing research during the monthly ILS Lunch Seminars. On Thursday 14 June, the last lunch seminar before the summer break took place. The festive ending…

Biodiversity in the Netherlands is having a tough time. Professor of Natural Capital Koos Biesmeijer combines research with practical advice: from the greening of industrial parks to solutions inspired by hi-tech nature. Inaugural lecture 9 March.

Astronomer Joseph Callingham and his team have observed for the first time a clear signal from a giant burst from a star outside our solar system. This would have a devastating impact on any unfortunate planet orbiting the star.

Acute stress seems to have a surprisingly positive effect on our health. Researcher Erin Faught received an NWO veni grant to find out why that is and how we can use that knowledge to our advantage. For her lab research, she uses a remarkable small animal to learn more about our own stress levels.

Rachel Beckles Willson started her career as a concert pianist but was later captivated by the Middle Eastern stringed instrument called the oud. On 1 December, she was appointed professor by special appointment of 'Intercultural Performing Arts'.