Why are morpho butterflies blue? That is what high school students Frederique Kerstens and Koen van Griensven investigated in their high school profile paper at the Leiden Institute for Research in Physics. In doing so, they won the KHMW Profielwerkstukprijs 2023. ‘We didn't expect it, but are of course…

On Thursday 21 November 2019, the project You&EU, in which Frederik Behre participated, won the Europaeum Scholar’s Prize for their social media campaign during the 2019 EU parliamentary elections.

Natalia Sobrino-Saeb, third-year student at Leiden University College The Hague, won the challenge by the Ignitor Fellowship Program held by the Nobel Peace Center for her essay on the threats to journalism in Mexico. On December 10th Natalia met the Committee of the Ignitor Fellowship in Oslo and attended…

We learned of the passing away of Nicolaas Bloembergen, Nobel Prize winner in Physics (1981) at the age of 97.

Resigning scientific director of the physics institute Eric Eliel has received the RISE prize for his outstanding commitment to increasing gender equality.

The 2018 Physics Nobel Prize is awarded to Arthur Ashkin, Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou for their research on optical tweezers based on lasers. Leiden physicists comment in the following media.

Not experiments and lab coats, but computers and artificial intelligence: this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to the inventors of the groundbreaking AI model, AlphaFold. This programme accurately predicts protein structures based on their genetic code—a crucial step in understanding biological…

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne for their work on the measurement of gravitational waves. Thorne was Lorentz Professor in 2009 in Leiden. Physicist Jan Willem van Holten explains why this is such an important discovery. ‘A new branch of astrophysics…

‘This lecturer’s aim is to challenge his students and to make sure that all of them understand the material,’ was the comment by Christel de Lange, chairman of the Leiden Student Council. Lecturer in Hebrew Studies, Martin Baasten, is the winner of the 2013 LSR Teaching Prize, the prize for the best…

Successfully completing a master’s thesis in Political Science is no small feat. Not only is this for most students the most extensive and in-depth research report they have ever written, the work is also held to very high standards. Yet, every year students manage to impress their instructors and demonstrate…

Winning an award at the start of your studies? No problem! Lieke Vertegaal is 20 years old and a first-year Computer Science student at Leiden University. On November 29, 2021, the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KHMW) awarded her a Young Talent incentive award.

On October 21st, 2019, the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, handed out the National Prize for the Youth in the academic achievement category to our PhD candidate Omar Aguilar Sánchez. He received this honour for his work on Mixtec pictorial manuscripts.

Annelot van Esbroeck-Weevers, PhD student at the Molecular Physiology research group at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, headed by Dr. Mario van der Stelt, has been awarded the Best Oral Communication Prize at the 8th European Workshop on Cannabinoid Research, held from 31 August to 2 September 2017…

In 2017 saxophonist Dick de Graaf obtained his PhD degree with his thesis 'Beyond borders : broadening the artistic palette of (composing) improvisers in jazz'. His own views for over forty years on jazz and related styles (amongst other qualities) have lead to the Edison Jazz Oeuvre Prize.

Anthe Janssen, a PhD student in the Molecular Physiology research group of Prof. Mario van der Stelt, has been awarded the Public's Choice Prize for Best Oral Presentation during the Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium '18 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Sandrine Gallois, a post-doctoral research in the HARVEST project, was awarded second place in the prestigious L'Óreal UNESCO For Women In Science Rising Talent prize. Sandrine, along with her supervisor Amanda Henry and collaborator Tinde van Andel attended the awards ceremony at the Koninklijke Hollandsche…

Dimiter Toshkov, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Administration, is a joint winner of the Haldane prize for best article published in 2013 in Public Administration - one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific journals in this academic field.

Psychology alumna Inge Schilperoord works as a forensic psychologist in the Pieter Baan Centre, a psychiatric observation clinic. Her debut novel 'Muidhond' about a man struggling with his paedophilic tendencies, has received the Bronze Owl 2015 for best Dutch debut novel. Schilperoord: 'The detective…

Only 35 years old and already a research group leader, on his way to tenure. And: numerous papers, grants and fellowships to his name. Leiden physicist Jordi Tura i Brugués receives today the Young Scientist Prize for his outstanding contributions to quantum research.

Mehmet Kentel has been named co-winner of the prize, which is given out yearly by the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, for his article “Ruin and Knowledge in Pera: Discovering Istanbul’s Genoese Heritage at the Moment of Its Destruction,” which was published in the fortieth-anniversary volume…

On 11 January, the book chapter ‘Duty of care as a judicial review tool for SSM composite procedures’ written by Barbora Budinská and Jouke Tegelaar was awarded the 2023 Meijers Prize for best publication by a PhD candidate published in 2022–2023 in the research programme ‘The Progression of EU law’…

The Board of Governors is pleased to announce that Professor Cisca Wijmenga has been appointed by outgoing Minister of Education, Culture and Science Robbert Dijkgraaf as its new member.

The Institute for Advanced Study has appointed astronomer and chemist Ewine Fleur van Dishoeck to its Board of Trustees, effective 5 May, 2018.

The Department of Medical Microbiology at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) is researching antiviral drugs that could treat and prevent SARS-CoV-2 in various projects. One part of the PanCoroNed project is being led by Martijn van Hemert and involves lab tests into the antiviral effect of molecules…

Archaeologist Corinne Hofman wins the Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship 2018/19 for research into the changing world of indigenous peoples as a result of colonialism. “The perspective of indigenous communities is still lacking in most history books.

Natalia Sobrino-Saeb has attended the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo. She was awarded this honour after winning the essay competition of the Nobel Ignitor Fellowship, a programme that seeks to inspire young changemakers around the world – for change can be made by all of us: “You never know…

The master thesis: for many students it is a true crowning glory. Some theses are truly excellent. Those are rewarded with the FSW Thesis Prize. This year, this award was won by Roosmarijn Goldbach (master’s Psychology) and Matija Čuljak (research master’s Psychology), who respectively researched borderline…

Ross Gildea has won the Institute of Political Science Research Master Thesis Prize 2016. ‘The Political Psychology of Humanitarian Issue (Non-)Adoption in International Politics’ is the crowning achievement of Gildea’s work as a MSc student. The thesis, according to the jury, stands out as a ‘fine…

Yannis Kyriakides, PhD student at Academy of Creative and Performing Arts , has received the prestigious International Rostrum for Composers award, in the category over 30 years, for his cello, video and electronics piece: Words and Song Without Words.

Floris Keehnen has been awarded the Volkskrant thesis prize 2012 for his MA thesis entitled:

The Faculty of Humanities has nominated Alexandra Nagel with her research thesis for the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation Research Prizes 2021. The Prize focuses on the humanities, social sciences and law.

The Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion (LUCSoR) and the Beheerstichting Theologische Fondsen hand out two thesis prizes each year, one for the best bachelor thesis and one for the best master thesis.

The Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion (LUCSoR) and the Beheerstichting Theologische Fondsen hand out two biennial thesis prizes, one for the best bachelor thesis and one for the best master thesis. Each of the prizes comes with a cash prize of €500. The prize money comes from the Fund…

The European Society of International Law (ESIL) awarded its 2020 Book Prize to Daniel Peat, an Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden Law School. The ESIL Book Prize is awarded annually 'for an outstanding published work in the…

Researchers Esther Captain, Gert Oostindie and Valika Smeulders have won the Die Haghe Prize 2024. They were awarded the prize for their book The colonial and slavery past of Hofstad The Hague.

Sarah Cramsey's first book, Uprooting the Diaspora: Jewish Belonging and the

During this award ceremony for alumni op Saturday, 10 February 2018, Vincent Bakker was awarded second prize in Leiden University’s 2018 Thesis Award. These prizes are made possible by the Minerva Reünisten Fund Year 1957/1961/1965, incorporated into the Leiden University Fund (LUF). His thesis supervisors…

Master's student Vicente Fischer de Miranda Rodrigues is the winner of the KHMW Brewer Thesis Prize for History. He was awarded the prize for his research on donatism.

Within her research, Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam covers multiple fields of study, like psychology and psychiatry. For this interdisciplinary work she will receive a major private science prize from the Foundation for Interdisciplinary Behavioural Research (SIGO). Why does the Leiden neuroscientist think…

Environmental scientist Nadia Soudzilovskaia has been awarded the prestigious, international Bessel-Forschungs prize issued by the Von Humboldt foundation. This German award is issued to outstanding foreign mid-career scientists that collaborate with German researchers. ‘The combination of different…

All Political Science graduates have good reasons to be proud of themselves, having successfully completed their studies and having demonstrated considerable personal growth. This October, fifteen bachelor students can be extra proud: their theses were nominated for a thesis prize. In the class of 2023,…

Dr Letizia Lo Giacco is the recipient of the 2024 Rosalyn Higgins Prize for her article titled 'When a Dispute Exists: The Emerging Evidentiary Practice of the ICJ in Common Interests Proceedings'.

Shirley van der Maarel won the Thesis Award 2020 with her thesis 'Terra Incognita'. Van der Maarel graduated summa cum laude for the master's specialisation Visual Ethnography. She researched a group of refugees housed in an Italian village and wrote an interactive thesis and made a film. This resulted…

No fewer than seven Leiden FWN students received a Young Talent Award from the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences on Monday, 29 November. Mark van den Bosch and Karlijn Kruiswijk won a graduation prize, a group of young astronomers won the ET Outreach Award and the other five students each received an…

Jason Rudall, Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, has been awarded the Hsu Mo Prize at the 2023 International Law Association-American Society of International Law Research Forum in Taiwan.

Psychologist Ilse van de Groep found that people react more aggressively when receiving negative feedback. However, if people already exhibit persistent antisocial behavior they do not respond even more aggressively to negative feedback.This research earned her the Koningsheide Prize 2022 for the scientific…

During the 55th Leiden-London meeting, held on 25 June 2016 in Leiden, the Editorial Board of the Common Market Law Review awarded the 2015 Common Market Law Review Young Academics Prize to Dr Anna Wallerman, for her article entitled “Towards an EU law doctrine on the exercise of discretion in national…

Wim Willems and Hanneke Verbeek were awarded with the Die Haghe Prize of 2016 for their book ‘Hier woonden wij. Hoe een stad zijn Joodse verleden herontdekt’ (English: ‘This is where we lived. How a city re-discovers its Jewish past.’) It is an exciting book about the rise and fall of the Jewish community…

A team including staff from Leiden University won the Open Initiative Trophy on 11 February, a prize for the best open science initiative in the Netherlands. The winners developed Reprohak, a hackathon-like event where participants repeat research to see whether the results were reproducible.

Cameron Mackie has been awarded both the Dissertation prize of the Laboratory Astrophysics division of the American Astronomical Society and the Dissertation prize of the Astrochemistry subdivision of the American Chemical Society for his thesis entitled