In the spirit of 'unity in diversity', our objective is to promote insight into and appreciation for the wonder that the same physical laws and mathematical concepts apply to the whole of nature, from the largest to the smallest energy and length scales. We strive for the application of abstract theoretical…

Leiden has a strong tradition in theoretical physics, thoroughly linked with experimental disciplines.

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The group Theoretical Physics of Life Processes, led by Helmut Schiessel, focuses on the physics of chromatin, the DNA-protein complex that fills the nuclei of eukaryotic cells.

The master’s specialisation Research in Theoretical Physics prepares you for a PhD position in theoretical physics. The research entails a broad range of topics including High Energy Physics and Particle Cosmology, Theoretical Physics of Life Processes and Condensed Matter Theory.

The Dutch Research School for Theoretical Physics (DRSTP) has received excellent ratings from an independent international committee. The DRSTP is a school for PhD training which has grown out of a collaboration between the theoretical physics departments at six Dutch universities—including Leiden—and…

Wim van Saarloos will become vice president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), and return to the Leiden Institute of Physics as professor of theoretical physics. Currently, Van Saarloos is Transition Director at the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

The financial sector, supply chains and ecology. Not necessarily topics you might associate with physics, yet it’s exactly what new professor Diego Garlaschelli is dealing with. The common thread? Complex networks.

After many years of preparations, CERN has approved a groundbreaking new experiment: the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP). Physicist Alexey Boyarsky was involved from the start. ‘We know there is physics that’s missing and we aim to find it.’

The master’s programme Physics at Leiden University offers a wide range of specialisations from theoretical research to cosmology. You will be trained for a career in research or for a more practical-oriented specialisation. The programme offers a wide choice of individual study paths that take into…

The master’s specialisation Cosmology at Leiden University is positioned at the interface between Theoretical Physics and Observational Astronomy. The main elements are theory, data analysis and numerical simulations, with research on the origin of dark matter as one of the highlights.

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…

This thesis contributes to studying primordial cosmology theories and their detectability in future observations.

This doctoral thesis comprises four studies on the content and structure of physics teachers’ belief systems about teaching and learning physics in secondary education in the Netherlands.

Practical information about the physics summer school of Leiden University: the frontiers of modern physics. This page contains information about the cost and price of the summer school, the available scholarships, location, housing and the programme. This summer school is a part of the Leiden Insitute…

Theoretical linguistics seeks to understand the underlying principles of the nature of human language.

The master’s specialisation Physics and Education at Leiden University prepares you to teach the subject of physics to secondary school students. The programme comprises a one-year physics component, followed by an education component in the second year.

Studying the underlying principles of the nature of language.

Are you thinking about studying Physics? Learn more and watch the introduction video.

The main goal of the THEOR CHEM group, headed by Prof. Geert-Jan Kroes, is to characterize, and to accurately predict the outcome of chemical reactions at gas-solid and liquid-solid interfaces. Here the solid surface is typically a metal or an ice surface. These goals are important to many areas in…

The Leiden Centre for Theoretical Philosophy (LCTP) is a platform for analytic philosophy in a broad sense at Leiden University. Its members do research in philosophy of science, philosophy of logic and metaphysics, with a keen interest in the history of topics such as mind, knowledge, truth, and ti…

The master’s specialisation Physics and Science Based Business at Leiden University bridges science and business development by focusing on areas such as technology management, innovation, entrepeneurship, operations, and decision making.

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.

The research programme Formal Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics brings together LUCL researchers who focus mainly on formal theoretical and experimental linguistics.

Describing a new language for the first time is an exciting and challenging intellectual experience.

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.

The physics of black holes appears to be as far removed from the physics of electrons in metals as it can be.

Studying Physics is an exciting journey through the foundations of nature: from the infinitesimal (particle physics) to the grandest scale (cosmology). Physics is a varied study programme that provides a solid foundation in theory and experimentation, with attention devoted to their practical applic…

My work is motivated by the necessity to extend Standard Model of Particle Physics in order to explain three observed phenomena that this great theory fails to accommodate

The master’s specialisation Physics and Science Communication and Society at Leiden University bridges the gap between experts and the public by combining high quality research in biology with extensive training in science communication.

Our world is shrinking, or at least our electronic devices are. From PCs to mobile phones: everything is smaller and thinner. The smaller the chip, the better it can conduct electricity and pass on information.

Does gravity work the same when you look at the largest scales in our universe? That’s what Leiden physicist Alessandra Silvestri will study with a 2 million euro ERC Consolidator grant. ‘We assume that it does, but we don’t actually know.’

How can we stay fit during hybrid working?

This master’s programme combines Physics with Data Science. You will learn how physics has its own tricks to deal with big data and how techniques from machine learning and deep learning can be applied to classical and quantum data. The first focus of attention is on classical data, including data mining,…

The Physics and Biological and Soft Matter master's specialisation is one of the two programmes that Leiden University offers in experimental physics. This programme mainly focuses on Biological Physics and Soft Matters Physics.

Promotor: F. Arbab

The Casimir pre-PhD programme at Leiden University prepares you for a PhD position in physics. If focuses on six research themes: Molecular Biophysics, Physics of nanostructures, Quantum Matter and Functional Materials, Quantum Information and quantum optics, Universe physics; theory and instrumentation,…

This is the physics summer school of Leiden University. It is part of the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION). The summer school is intended for Bachelor (BSc) students in physics. It covers topics from quantum matter and optics, to biological & soft matter physics and cosmology and theoretical physics.…

Research groups in the Biological & Soft Matter Programme unravel mechanisms in biological processes and develop novel bio-inspired soft materials.

The central inquiry of this thesis revolves around how ontology can adequately accommodate the existence of necessary physical relations. Initially, the thesis demonstrates the imperative acknowledgment of necessary physical relations by showcasing the failure of Neo-Humean theories.

Persistent somatic symptoms are long term symptoms that lack a clear medical explanation. These symptoms have a high prevalence where most people know someone who experiences such symptoms or they experience such symptoms themselves. Symptoms can vary greatly in and between people. While one person…

Video interview with Subodh Patil, the new assistant professor in Theoretical Cosmology, about the gravitational waves, hidden universes, music, and whether Dutch, Danish and German fit into one brain.

Swarms of drones, pedestrians or the cells in your body. Those are all examples of active matter: materials whose building blocks can move autonomously. That’s what Luca Giomi studies. Giomi has been appointed Professor of theoretical physics in the area of soft matter and biological physics at the…

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking (76) passed away on 14 March at his home in Cambridge, having been a long-term sufferer of the muscular disease ALS. A number of Leiden scientists look back at the life and scientific career of this world-famous physicist. 'He was very approachable and extremely…

Promotors: Prof.dr. J. Zaanen, Prof.dr.ir. H. Hilgenkamp

Systems with local constraints is a new finding in recent researches on complex systems. The heterogeneous spatial interactions and the temporal dependencies among those numerous units make it difficult to describe by traditional statistical physics.

Alex Colling himself calls his bachelor's thesis ‘the highlight of his time in Leiden’. And according to his supervisors, that resulted in an outstanding thesis, with great attention to detail. The Mathematics and Physics student worked on a mathematical description of monopoles: hypothetical particles…

Promotores: Prof.dr. D. Bouwmeester, Prof.dr. A. Fiore (TU Eindhoven)