Echoing corridors, chaotic lessons and the obligatory chit-chat in the playground: for pupils with autism, an average day at school is exhausting. As a result, many of them feel lonely. Elijah, an expert from personal experience, says: ‘In the breaks, I’d sit on my own in a room.’

When Russia attacked Ukraine in the night of 23-24 February, alumnus Joost Bunk, who was working as a diplomat in Russia, knew that everything would change.

Nederland heeft geen nationale bloem en daar wil het radioprogramma Vroege Vogels verandering in brengen. Verschillende experts van Universiteit Leiden zijn betrokken bij de verkiezing.

Organisation

Ezequiel Gonzalez-Ocantos (Oxford University) and Juan Masullo Jimenez (Leiden University Institute of Political Science) are the new editors of Qualitative and Multi-Method Research (QMMR). QMMR is a biannual publication of the American Political Science Association (APSA) section for the study, development,…

Education, Finance, Research

Does the university value teaching less than research? Can you advance in science without academic awards? Which scholars inspire you? Does the university pay enough attention to both your academic achievements and your personal well-being?

Did your colleagues develop an inspiring educational innovation? Or, did you collaborate with teachers and/or support staff to do so?

Despite the promising effects of technology in assessment and treatment, the actual use of novel technologies in juvenile justice context remains limited. We want to inspire researchers to develop and investigate technological applications for assessment and treatment for justice involved youth.

Education, Organisation

By the time you read this message, it will already be February. But since this is our first newsletter of the year, I still feel compelled to wish all of you a very happy New Year!

The Economics Department at Leiden University is pleased to announce a junior workshop focusing on The Economic, Social and Political Effects of Migration, which will be held Friday 19 April 2024, at the Gravensteen in Leiden.

Following the success of the pilot calendar that was launched earlier this year, a new D&I calendar for the academic year 2022-2023 has been developed. This calendar is an effort to build awareness and a cultural understanding of important religious holidays and other special observances of the diverse…

With the holiday season approaching, the perfect moment for a short reflection and a lot of appreciation has come. Let me first start by trying to answer a crucial question for our faculty: what role do the social sciences play in our current time?

Research

What do we really know about educational quality and its measurement? This was the subject of the first Higher Education Knowledge Café.

How do you put students at the centre of education? And how do you make your research action-oriented? A new podcast by the Centre for Innovation answers these question. In Design Thinking in Education, four lecturers and two students talk about educational innovation.

The master’s programme 'Jeugdrecht' (Child Law) at Leiden Law School has been awarded the gold medal by EW Beste Studies. It is the only degree programme at Leiden University to have earned this top award. Professor Mariëlle Bruning says, 'it’s the best compliment you could ever get in your career'.

For a few years now, Leiden’s Hortus botanicus has been mounting a campaign to cherish wild plants in the city – for the biodiversity and beauty of this spontaneous vegetation. Botanical artists reveal this beauty in an exhibition at Oude UB in Leiden.

We want FGGA to become a place where everyone feels welcome, at ease, and included. The outcomes of last year's personnel monitor and D&I survey show that we are not quite there yet.

Recent developments in AI mean nobody is anonymous nowadays. The search engine PimEyes can find any photo of anyone that’s ever been placed online. No more Tinder Swindlers… or personal privacy. Everyone’s findable now. But is that even allowed?

Organisation

As of 1 November W&N has a wellbeing officer. Alexandra Blank will commit herself to the wellbeing of our students. Students, but also lecturers and mentors can approach her with ideas and initiatives to support students.

From 22 to 24 October, researchers of the MARBLES-project informed museum visitors about microbes: bacteria and fungi that live all around us. The event was organised around the Micro-day of Leiden, which is this year’s EU City of Science.

Education

ICT

Organisation

ICT, Organisation

Are you interested in creating a fabulous science pitch? Neurospyschologist Liza Cornet - winner of the National Famelab Science Pitching Competition 2020 shares 3 tips based on personal experience that can help you design your pitch.

Education

An open academic culture, where quality beats quantity, where science and society are closely linked and where we recognise and reward everyone’s contribution is the aim of the university-wide Academia in Motion (AiM) programme.

Since 2020, the Krijn Rietveld Memorial Award has been annually presented by dsm-firmenich for the best master's or doctoral research at the Faculty of Science in the field of life sciences combined with data science. As of 2024, this award will be split into three prizes with a broader scope of research…

The Faculty of Humanities has two new teaching coaches. On 1 September, Karin Nijenhuis and Paz González took over from Maarten van Leeuwen and Astrid Van Weyenberg. New: the focus on more advanced teachers.

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.

Education, Research

As you know, the faculty is working on a follow up strategy built around six different themes. Each theme now has its own writing team. Every week we speak with one of these teams about the content of their theme, and share an update in the newsletter. This weeks theme: Strategic Growth, led by Koen…

The journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society – Biological Sciences published its theme issue ‘Conflict across taxa’ on 4 April, which was edited by Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology Carsten de Dreu. Together with researchers from other disciplines he provides more insight…

The University Council is the central participation body at the University. It is looking for a new chair as of 1 September. Until then Charlotte de Roon is at the helm. She talks about her experiences as chair of the University Council.

Not all gay and lesbian students feel equally safe at their sports clubs. ‘Homo’ is used almost unthinkingly as a term of abuse and players often face homophobic comments. What can sports clubs and teams do to make sure everyone feels safe when playing sports?

Education is more than just knowledge transfer: students also develop numerous important skills. But which skills are addressed in which courses? And how can we help students train these skills? The Science Skills team is actively engaging with teachers to answer these questions for all courses. Want…

For 2022, The Iranian-German project 'The Iranian Highlands: Resilience and Integration of Premodern Societies' announces the second round of fellowship grants. The fellowship is open for both iranian and non-iranian researchers, especially in archaeology but also in other interdisciplinary fields focussing…

Alessandra Silvestri has been appointed professor in Theoretical Physics in the area of Cosmology. For her this promotion in Leiden is the icing on the cake. ‘But there are many more boxes I would like to tick.’

Leiden is European City of Science in 2022 and this will be celebrated under the name Leiden2022. During Leiden2022, various activities will be organised, such as lectures, workshops, excursions and exhibitions. On the occasion of Leiden2022, Postbus 71 will be opened: the place to go if you have any…

Sense Jan van der Molen is vanaf 1 maart de nieuwe wetenschappelijk directeur van het Leiden Instituut voor Onderzoek in de Natuurkunde.

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…

LIACS assistant professor Ben van Werkhoven leads the development of software for optimising graphics processing units. By now, version 1.0 of 'Kernel Tuner' is just around the corner. This milestone shows that the software is ready for serious use.