In the documentary ‘Pretend Student’, former students talk about why they let everyone believe they were still studying. How can you make sure you don’t end up in such an impossible situation? Four questions for Leiden Student Dean, Romke Biagioni, who worked on the documentary.

A team of scientists, including Leiden Astronomer Alice Booth, has discovered silicon monosulfide molecules in the dust disk around a young star. Such molecules indicate planet formation. The team made the discovery using the ALMA telescopes. This method provides an alternative when direct observation…

Education, Organisation

Facility

Researchers at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) are collaborating on the development of a conversation tool for patients with breast, prostate and skin cancer. The aim is to create a conversation tool that can support cancer patients in their care and help them make decisions.…

Democracy is under pressure all over the world. With the #DemocracyinAction project, university lecturers Sara Brandellero and Kamila Krakowska Rodrigues want to investigate how grassroots art projects manage to keep democracy alive.

Anke Klein and her team have devised a fun and useful app to help anxious children. In the app, children can upload a video of themselves showing, for example, something that went well for them and share their success with parents, granny or grandad. Developmental psychologist Klein talks about the…

Like spoken languages, sign languages evolve organically and do not always have the same origin. This produces different ways of communication and annotation. Manolis Fragkiadakis wrote his PhD thesis on this.

Tuberculosis bacteria survive by hiding in our immune cells. In her PhD research, biologist Salomé Muñoz Sánchez explores how boosting the body’s own defenses might outsmart this deadly pathogen. Her work reveals two key proteins that help immune cells destroy the bacteria.

Persecution, conflicts and crises threaten academic facilities and researchers worldwide. This has major implications for science. Leiden University's Scholars for Scholars programme helps scientists in need through crowdfunding.

Its idyllic setting and white sandy beaches have made the Maldives a hotspot for tourists. This provides an income but is a problem for the fragile natural environment. Students from various universities worked with the local people to make the soil more fertile. How did they go about it?

Professor of Media Law and Information Society Tarlach McGonagle is concerned about the increase in online disinformation and hate speech. He argues that human rights should guide new policies for the online world. McGonagle will give his inaugural lecture on 9 May.

Since the introduction of ChatGPT, the tool has become immensely popular with students. The Faculty of Humanities is now developing its own bots that can act for students as an individual tutor. In January, product owner Julian van der Kraats assists at a workshop on this technique to interested Humanities…

Professor of Fungal Genetics and Biotechnology Arthur Ram explains how fungi can help us be more sustainable.

Artificial intelligence can help doctors analyse images such as MRI scans. In future it may even be able to predict how a tumour will grow. And that is badly needed to relieve the pressure on healthcare workers.

Jekaterina Savicka is funding advisor at Leiden Law School. She is part of the Department of Research, the department responsible for organisational and policy support for research at the faculty. How has she experienced working here since starting her position back in March 2024?

A new course is often challenging enough for students. But in addition to the new subject matter, they also face all kinds of additional challenges: how do I write a report, how do I find reliable sources, or how do I pitch a research proposal? The e-learning skills platform offers an online learning…

Two workshops on imbalance are scheduled in the near future: one for staff members and one for managers. The aim is to help people recognise signs of imbalance earlier and to take appropriate action.

Many primary school children suffer from anxiety and their numbers are increasing. Psychologists from the Knowledge Center Anxiety & Stress (KAS) are developing and researching preventive training.

Research

Medical psychologist Willeke Kitselaar developed a model that helps identify patients with persistent somatic symptoms earlier, based on an extensive large medical database. ‘I advise GPs to ask patients to fill in a questionnaire about both physical and mental symptoms at an earlier stage.’ PhD defence…

De Regenboog primary school in The Hague has a high percentage of children whose first language is not Dutch. In the ‘Children of the City’ project, Education and Child Studies students help primary school children practise their Dutch.

Developing a better treatment for patients with head and neck cancer, that is what Binanox, The 2022 iGEM Leiden team, want to achieve. They hope to raise at least 10,000 euros for this cause. Support their crowdfunding campaign today.

Electrical inner ear prostheses like Cochlear Implants (CIs) help deaf and severely hearing-impaired persons to regain many of their communication abilities. The performance of CI in social environments is, however, not optimal. The new "Machine learning To Enhance teMPoral cOding foR cochleAr impLants“…

How do classroom demonstration experiments help students learn chemical reasoning? Marie-Jetta den Otter, PhD student at ICLON, researched this. She defends her thesis on 6 December.

Museum De Lakenhal is displaying the smallest work of art in the world: a 3D-printed statue of Rembrandt van Rijn, made by sculptor Jeroen Spijker and researchers from Leiden University.

Dutch Central Bank President Klaas Knot wants to wind down the European Central Bank’s crisis bond-buying programme this year because the economic outlook is looking increasingly positive.

Last semester, bachelor’s students in Religious Studies spent a lot of time in community centres in Leiden. The reason: field research into loneliness in the city.

What causes depression in a child and how can they get over it? Leiden Professor of Psychology Bernet Elzinga and behavioural scientist Carine Kielstra recently hosted a webinar on the subject of depression in teenagers. The level of interest was overwhelming.

Research

A European project should help reinvigorate Latin teaching in secondary schools. 'By focusing on citizenship, we want to show that Latin is relevant to discussions about citizenship and migration.'

Scientists regularly appear in the media. They participate in science cafés, write a popular-science book or visit school classes. In that way, they want to convey their knowledge and enthusiasm to society. But do they succeed? To answer that question, a new website is launched, with a toolbox full…

Using mathematics to help children with bone cancer. It sounds a little strange, but for statistician Marta Fiocco, it's just her job. She gets a substantial grant from KiKa for it. With that money, she is going to study the effect of chemotherapy adjustments.

Antibiotic resistance is an economic problem. Pharmaceutical companies cannot earn much from antibiotic research, so they do not invest in it. This makes it important that universities do so, says Ned Buijs.

Adults who were abused or mistreated as a child and consequently suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can benefit greatly from cognitive behavioural therapy. This is the conclusion of a study of 149 patients. Researcher and PhD candidate Chris Hoeboer is hopeful about the results and the…

People who are often stressed can feel calmer by making certain adjustments to their breathing. Possibly this also positively affects concentration and attention. Psychologist Roderik Gerritsen studied the effects of breathing differently for the first time, and explains them. Gerritsen receives his…

Storing energy is one of the biggest challenges in the energy transition. Hydrogen could be a solution. Chemist Daan den Boer is researching how to make the chemical reaction needed to store energy in hydrogen as cheap and efficient as possible.

AI has applications in all kinds of fields. Would you like to organise an event on the possibilities of AI in your research field? The Leiden interdisciplinary research programme SAILS offers you experts on content, money and other support.

We already know a lot about genetics and the risk of breast cancer. But much still needs to be done in breast cancer genetics to improve the prognosis and make sure women at high risk aren’t missed. This is what Professor by Special Appointment Marjanka Schmidt will say in her inaugural lecture on 4…

Only one in five young people with emotional health problems such as an anxiety disorder receives appropriate professional help. GPs often fail to properly recognise the signals in children and young people, according to psychologist Semiha Aydin. How can we improve this? PhD defence 23 February.

Education, ICT

On Friday 2 June 2023, Vincent Delhomme, Assistant professor at the Europe Institute at Leiden Law School, successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled : ‘Regulating lifestyle risks in EU law: Promoting health in a diverse market’.

As early as 2030, batteries in electric vehicles could fully meet the need for short-term electricity storage around the world. By connecting them to the power grid they can provide their stored energy, improving energy security and enabling renewable technologies in cleaning the grid.

Spatial technology such as virtual reality can help patients who have difficulty with spatial cognition, for instance if they keep on losing their way. In her inaugural lecture, neuropsychologist Ineke van der Ham will talk about the importance of avatars, the patient experience and room for innovat…