On 29 April, doctoral researcher Sophie Vériter will join the annual Ralf Dahrendorf Memorial Lecture at St Antony’s College, Oxford University as a discussant.

After three years of covid postponements, the time had finally come on Wednesday 29 June 2022: Carel Stolker’s last speech as Rector Magnificus was buried according to tradition under the ginkgo tree in the library at the Kamerlingh Onnes building.

Beneath the glittering surface image of K-pop idols lies the Dorian Grey-like heart of an industry that abuses and discards its trainees and stars. It is a system of absolute power, that will be unable to uphold its image of a positive global influence. According to Aleydis Nissen, researcher at Leiden…

On Tuesday 19 March, Chris Suijker (Director of Real Estate) handed over the key of the Herta Mohr Building to Saskia Goedhard (Executive Director of the Faculty of Humanities), officially transferring the management of this building to the Faculty of Humanities.

This week, we had the LACDR PhD Introductory course on Drug. This is always a great opportunity for starting PhD candidates to get to know LACDR, CHDR, the Clinical Pharmacology department of LUMC and the embedding of the institute in the BioSciencepark as a whole.

If the Netherlands wants to change its reputation as a tax haven, it must do more according to Professor of Tax Law Jan van de Streek on American news site Bloomberg.

The judicial authorities are looking into the possibilities for prosecution for the slogans that were projected on the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam on New Year’s Eve. Not an easy task, according to legal experts. When do we consider something to be ‘discrimination’?

Organisation

This March, Jara Bouma, Cas van der Horst and Laura Heitman from the Division of Drug Discovery and Safety and Laura de Paus, Richard van den Berg, Anthe Janssen and Mario van der Stelt from the LIC joined forces to determine how some drugs can specifically target the cannabinoid CB2 receptor (CB2R)…

Mees Vergouwen heeft op 28 oktober de Mitchell B. Carroll prijs van de International Fiscal Association (IFA) ontvangen. De fiscalist won de prijs met zijn proefschrift over ‘botsende belastingregels’.

Before the summer holidays, the elections for new staff members in the Science Faculty Council have taken place (thank you for voting!). For the coming two years, the LACDR will be represented in the Faculty Council by Laura Heitman and Linda Holtman!

In De Kookshow, Universiteit Van Nederland explores the scientific world behind food. Ever wondered which senses influence how tasty you find something? And why do you always have room for pudding after a meal? Leiden historian Kim Beerden is among the scholars providing answers.

Student Rozita Abdolrahimi Raeni is one of this year's winners of the KNMP Student Award. The Royal Dutch Society for the Advancement of Pharmacy (KNMP) hands out the award annually. Rozita is a master's student in Pharmacy and received the award for her excellent study results, motivation and commi…

The project 'Crossing Boundaries: Ethnographic Approaches in Research on Migration and Diversity' has been awarded funding through the LDE Governance of Migration and Diversity (GMD) Seed Fund 2025–2026.

Het Amerikaanse hooggerechtshof oordeelde op 1 juli dat een president tijdens hun ambtsperiode een zekere immuniteit heeft. Zij zijn onschendbaar in geval van ‘officiële handelingen’. Tessa van Buchem uit haar zorgen en kritiek in het FD.

Writing with Light Magazine. Issue no.1 is now available for download as a open access pdf/interactive edition or purchase as limited-run print edition. The magazine builds on our prior work with the journals Cultural Anthropology and Visual Anthropology Review and the editorial collective consists…

Organisation, Social

In a podcast of the Netherlands Internet Governance Forum (NL GF) and the Safer Internet Centre Nederland, Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University and Thijs Hannema, a lawyer at Kennedy van der Laan, discuss online privacy of children.

In May 2021, Professor Bart Custers, Dr Mark Leiser and Dr Eduard Fosch Villaronga (all affiliated to eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies of Leiden University) will teach a course on Law and Technology at Haifa University, Israel.

Organisation

Uncovering ageing processes in the brain and research on the use of the word ‘that’. Thanks to a Rubicon Grant, two Leiden researchers who were recently awarded their PhDs will be able to conduct research at a research institute abroad.

After nearly five years as President of the Executive Board, Annetje Ottow will be stepping down from the role as of 1 September. During her time as President, she helped shape the university’s strategic direction, strengthening its regional, European and international profile. Sustainability, and dignity…

Organisation

On 25 November, Professor Ineke Sluiter received the Medal of Honour for Arts and Sciences in the Order of Orange-Nassau. She was presented with the medal by King Willem-Alexander.

Professor emeritus of Animal Behaviour Carel ten Cate is awarded honorary membership by the Dutch Society for Behavioural Biology (NVG). He received the honour for his activities for the Society and the discipline of behavioural biology.

Natalia Sobrino-Saeb, third-year student at LUC, won the competition by the Ignitor Fellowship Program held by the Nobel Peace Center for her essay on the threats to journalism in Mexico. An article about Natalia and her prize appeared in the Mexican newspaper El Heraldo de México.

Ambassador Hyoung Chan Choe of South Korea paid his first visit to Leiden University Nov. 22, where he was received by President Annetje Ottow and Professor of Korea Studies Remco Breuker.

They are among the rarest and most extremely luminous stars in our universe: yellow hypergiants. Their spectacular eruptions have intrigued astronomers for decades, and now an international team led by Leiden’s emeritus professor Arnout van Genderen has gained new insights into the mechanisms behind…

Finland reduced its suicide rate from 30 deaths per 100,000 citizens. Marieke Liem and Leah Prencipe discuss this in The Conversation.

From March 11th to 14th, the workshop "The Future of Ethics in Caribbean Archaeology," led by IN THE SAME SEA Postdoctoral Fellow Felicia Fricke and her colleagues Eduardo Herrera Malatesta (Århus University, Denmark) and Maaike de Waal (Leiden University, The Netherlands) took place at the Saxo Institute…

On 20 May 2022, eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies of Leiden University organised the Hans Franken lecture for the third time. This year the lecture was delivered by Aleid Wolfsen, chairman of the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (Data Protection Authority (DPA)), the privacy watchdog of the…

Instant messaging app Telegram is not faring well in the news – the reason being the illicit activities occurring on the platform. Professor Bart Custers helped Dutch current affairs programme ‘EenVandaag’ respond to questions about the platform.

ICT, Security

Leiden University will confer an honorary doctorate on astrophysicist Sara Seager for her work on exoplanets.

Sri Lanka is experiencing unprecedented economic and political crises. Months of protests came to a head earlier this month when protesters occupied President Rajapaksa's palace.

At the International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS) conference 2022 in Porto, psychologists Tom Wilderjans, Jeffrey Durieux and Julian Rossbroich won the IFCS Cluster Benchmarking Challenge. They wrote the best paper on benchmarking and were awarded with an official plaque and book voucher…

Facility

Professor Mariska Kret has received the Mercator Sapiens Stimulus, a new science prize from the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW). The prize consists of a sum of 1m euros.

On 7 November, we marked an important milestone for our Law and Criminology bachelor's students who celebrated at their graduation ceremony.

Organisation

The LACDR green lab initiative is a group recently founded by employees of the LACDR. We are devoted to stimulating sustainability in our education and research! With the support of the Institute manager and scientific director of the LACDR, our main goal is making the labs more sustainable by e.g.…

When it comes to wealth distribution in the Netherlands, you often hear that there is a huge gap. Is that true? And is this gap also widening, as is often claimed?

Since 1 January Leiden has a new graduate school. The Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA), previously based at the University of Amsterdam, has moved to the Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS).

Immediately after the Dutch government’s press conference about the new coronavirus measures, a shopkeeper in Eindhoven hung up a notice in his window saying ‘No vaccination: no entry’. Even though he is not enforcing his own rule, he is receiving threats.

Despite the covid-19 pandemic, the 2019-2022 Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project between Leiden Law School and the University of Tirana was successfully finalized.

On 24 January, the yearly Education Kick Off took place in PLNT: the perfect opportunity for teachers and course coordinators to start off the new semesters inspired and informed. The general state of affairs around education was discussed and two thematic sessions offered in-depth insights on new testing…

Russia recently blew up a defect satellite. As a result, the amount of space debris in Earth orbit has increased.

How many children are waiting for help from youth services in the Netherlands at any given time? And exactly how long do they have to wait?

Human resources