Lecture

Historic and iconic yet expensive and cold. It’s with mixed feelings that the university is leaving the Gravensteen building, which dates back to the 12th century. How was it to work and study in this former Leiden prison?

Dutch greenhouse horticulture is a world leader when it comes to innovative capacity and sustainability, but ‘the challenges are great in terms of energy, water, environment and biodiversity,’ says Peter van Bodegom, coordinator of AgriFood at the Centre for Sustainability of the Leiden, Delft, Erasmus…

Floreat et crescat. Flourish and grow. That was what was wished for the Mathematical Institute at its opening. Now, the institute proudly celebrates its 70th anniversary. Time to reflect on how it all began. And importantly, how is it doing now?

Some bacteria, it turns out, have proteins much like ours that organise the DNA in their cells. They just do it a bit differently. This is revealed by new research from biochemists at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry and the Max Planck Institute for Biology. The discovery helps us better understand…

LUC historian Jacqueline Hylkema unmasks forgeries from the early modern Dutch Republic in the research project "Mapping the Fake Republic".

Lecture, LUCL Colloquium

Conference, workshop

Lecture, Leiden Translation Talks

Lecture, SMILE Talks

Lecture, Descriptive Linguistic Seminars

Five thousand years before the common era (BCE), Proto-Indo-European, the mother of many languages that are spoken today in Europe, Central Asia and South Asia, originated in eastern Europe. PhD candidate Axel Palmér has combined a 175-year-old hypothesis with new techniques to demonstrate how descendants…

Rik van Gijn was appointed professor of Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Diversity in the World from 1 December 2024. He is keen to use the position to set up research on language vitality. ‘People almost never give up their mother tongue entirely voluntarily.’

Western countries still tend to view Africa as the periphery, says anthropologist Mayke Kaag. In her inaugural lecture, she calls for a shift in perspective: to see Africa as a mirror of global developments.

Stack two layers of graphene, twisted at slightly different angles to each other, and the material spontaneously becomes a superconductor. Science still can't explain how something so magical can happen, but physicists use special equipment to reveal what is taking place under the surface.

‘Our faculty is a very international community. And that is something everybody really benefit from,’ says Yun Tian. As the officer internationalisation, she is the bridge between international students and staff, the faculty and universities abroad. ‘Science goes beyond countries and carries no nationality.…

Meijerslezing, Meijersprijzen en Van Wersch springplankprijs en Nieuwjaarsreceptie 2024

‘The climate crisis is the greatest threat we face,’ says Leiden University environmental scientist Paul Behrens. ‘And yet, there is hope. In the near future, I think we will wonder why we didn’t make these changes earlier.’

Festival

The Week of the International Students, from 14 – 18 November is an initiative of Nuffic. The aim of this week is to showcase the importance of an international experience for both Dutch and international students. This year’s theme Meet the world, make the change highlights the positive change students…

Conference

Lecture, SMILE Talks

Festival

Lecture, LUCL Colloquium

Webinar

Lecture, Walk-in session

Arts and culture, Opera lecture

Lecture

Book Launch

Lecture

Lecture, LUCL Colloquium

Toelating en selectie

Festival, Open House

Lecture, Book Launch Leiden University Nationalism Network

Lecture, This Time for Africa series

Lecture, Digital Archaeology Group

What do ten-year-old children and chatbots have in common? PhD researcher Bram van Dijk studied language development in both children and AI language models. ‘It’s actually quite practical that we attribute human traits to a chatbot.’

Miko Flohr is a lecturer in Ancient History studying the social and economic history of the Greco-Roman world, with a special interest in urban commerce and everyday work in Roman Italy, particularly in Pompeii, Ostia and Rome. Educated as a classicist, and with a Ph.D. in archaeology, he teaches on…

Carolien Rieffe leads the Focus On Emotions research lab at the Developmental and Educational Psychology section of the Institute of Psychology and University of Twente. She is Professor of Social Interaction Technology at the University of Twente and Honorary Professor at the Institute of Education…

Luuk de Ligt is a professor at the Institute for History.

Alexander Geurds is Dean and Professor at the Faculty of Archaeology.