Academics increasingly face threats, intimidation and abuse. The WetenschapVeilig platform has been launched to address this. Academics who are being threatened or intimidated can seek help from the platform 24 hours a day. It’s good that we now have this platform. But at the same time, it’s awful that…

Soft structures that can take on different shapes without any external drive. Leiden physicists Daniela Kraft and Julio Melio created them in their lab. They present their groundbreaking research on microscale metamaterials in Nature - a breakthrough that opens the door to smart, reconfigurable materials…

For decades, unmarried girls and women in the Netherlands were forced to give up their newborn children. The impact was profound and persists to this day for the mothers, fathers, relinquished children, and the adoptive families in which they were raised.

A world-famous light experiment from 1801 has now been carried out with sound for the first time. Research by physicists in Leiden has produced new insights that could be applied in 5G devices and the emerging field of quantum acoustics.

On 8 March 2021, International Women’s Day, Vanessa Newby was a panelist at the online discussion ‘Breaking Barriers – Women in Peacekeeping’, organized by A4P WPS Champions Ireland, Germany, South Africa and Bangladesh together with UNSCR 1325 architect, Namibia.

Organisation

The doors of the new University Sports Centre are open to all students, staff and sports lovers. Want to see what it looks like? Watch the video and run through the centre with Zakari!

Facility

Tirza Cramwinckel, Assistant Professor in tax law, has won one of the 2023 Research Prizes awarded by the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation.

Facility

On 30 June, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies of Leiden University (eLaw) will hold the annual Hans Franken Lecture. This year, the lecture will be held by Jan Kleijssen, the recently retired human rights director at the Council of Europe. The title of the lecture is: 'AI and Human Rights'…

On 25 February, the KOG opened its doors once more to welcome a large crowd of people looking to find their perfect study programme during the Bachelor’s Open Day. The aspiring students were welcomed in the various lecture halls where they were able to experience the ins & outs of the available programmes…

In a world where law and morality strive for clarity, order, and control, this book challenges us to confront what has long been forgotten: the tragic dimension of existence. Drawing on the ancient wisdom of Greek tragedy and the passionate urgency of both atheist and religious existentialism, Timo…

The socio-economic effects of climate change often do not receive enough attention. At the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) a group of researchers will provide more insight. How does climate change affect whether people work together or conversely end up as opponents? And what can we learn from societies…

In the ESOF2022 mini-symposium organized by the Social Resilience & Security programme, international experts with a background in psychology, philosophy, and law discussed how the online world is related to adolescent mental health issues, moral and emotional awareness and children’s rights. In three…

From 13 to 16 July, Leiden will host the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), the largest multidisciplinary scientific conference in Europe. Lars van Doorn from Leiden Law School will give a presentation.

The future is digital. That is why the new Humanities Hub for Digital Research Skills, and Media (in short: Humanities Hub) will soon open its doors in the Johan Huizinga building. This Hub brings together a number of innovative labs that are in line with the development of the new Humanities Campus,…

Organisation

This month, it came out that a subdistrict court judge used ChatGPT to formulate a ruling. The judge included some text generated by the popular AI chatbot in his decision. This resulted in a lot of media commotion, raising doubts as to whether using ChatGPT in court is permissible and responsible.

Tirza Smits and Rianne Weber (Education and Child Studies) developed a Brightspace course where lecturers can see and experience Brightspace as students do. The goal: to inspire lecturers to try more new things. "So much more can be done with Brightspace than you think. We'd like to show that."

Organisation

Dr Mark Leiser, Assistant Professor in Law and Digital Technologies at eLaw, is part of a successful €1.5 million bid for a research grant from the acclaimed Volkswagen Institute on “Reclaiming individual autonomy and democratic discourse online: How to rebalance human and algorithmic decision makin…

Recently, Hans-Martien ten Napel was in the news on the above subject several times.

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Islamic banking, freedom of religion, LGBTQ+ acceptance and education are topics that European Muslims find important for their future. These are the results of a survey by Professor of Islam and the West, Maurits Berger. The survey is the starting point of a citizen project in which Berger wants to…

Three Humanities lecturers received the Senior Qualification in Education (SKO) this year. University lecturer Bruno Verbeek is one of them. What does he think makes for good education?

Ruim twintig nieuwsgierige medewerkers en studenten kregen een rondleiding in het nieuwe universiteitsgebouw van de Universiteit Leiden aan de Grote Marktstraat en het Spui in Den Haag dat in september 2025 de nieuwste locatie van de Campus Den Haag gaat worden. Nu is het vooral een kwestie van door…

And the construction has started! Students of the Leiden Science study associations ceremoniously hammered down the first poles of the new Gorlaeus on Tuesday morning. By doing so, they initiated the second phase of the construction of the second part of the new building.

Reserve a seat, pack a nice lunch and leave a little extra time if you need to change trains. These tips come from colleagues who recently travelled by train for work. They found it a comfortable, productive and greener way to travel. ‘Just give it a try, to me it’s not very different from working from…

Markus Altena Davidsen was 'extremely happy' when he heard that he and his colleagues had been awarded a grant from the KNAW pilot fund for science communication. Together with partners from all over the country, they are working on a book that should inspire secondary schools to renew their education…

On Wednesday 5 November, Jasper sets off on the annual study trip for the Board of Deans together with the Executive Board. Because of budget cuts, they’re staying a bit closer to home this year. But that doesn’t make the trip any less enjoyable — as you’ll read in this column.

From once controversial scientific works and historical bibles, to personal shopping lists and clothing bills. The 17th-century Bibliotheca Thysiana and the archive of the collector Johannes Thysius exhibit both the intellectual and everyday life as it was three hundred years ago. Now a brand-new digital…

There is no such thing as the quintessential cybercriminal. It can be a Russian gang or the boy next door. What we do know is that cybercrime is an enduring societal problem that can affect every one of us. ‘We do not know enough about the criminals’, says Professor of Governing Cybercrime Rutger Le…

More than 700 visitors got to know the Science Faculty during the Leiden Science Family Day. People of all ages could enjoy fascinating experiments, tours, interesting lectures, spectacular nitrogen shows and various workshops. It was an informative day with many (future) scientists, amazement and,…

After various jobs as an archaeologist, alumnus Ruurd Kok became a journalist. For the ‘Traces of Leiden University’ series, he explored the past of university buildings. ‘To me, history is interesting when you can touch it.’

Leiden University wants to increase the security of its systems. That is why since 1 May the ‘sneakers team’ has been making many miles through our buildings. This team with various specialists will map all measuring and research systems. Today Roland van Dam introduces himself, he is the project manager…

Education, Organisation

An international visitation committee has judged the research programme of the Institute of Public Administration of Leiden University as excellent. The report, which looked at the period 2014-2019, was published last week.

He came to the Netherlands for three months and never left. Marcello Bonsangue is the new scientific director of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) since January this year. 'I think it is important to be there for the people of our institute. My door is always open.'

From spiders in the bathroom to mice in the kitchen, we share our homes with far more species than we realise (whether we like it or not). Researchers at Leiden University and the University of Helsinki are collecting stories about how people live alongside these non-human housemates.

The university has been shaping the city of Leiden for 450 years. A brief history of the university buildings that have helped define the city.

Social

A European team of astronomers, led by Leiden-based researcher Konstantinos Migkas, has uncovered a large filament — a long, thread-like structure — of hot gas connecting four clusters of galaxies. This filament is made up of what scientists call the warm-hot intergalactic medium.

What is life like as an academic? Twelve PhD candidates will report on their daily work in videos and blogs on the Faces of Science website (in Dutch). They include three researchers from Leiden who are researching topics such as North Korean support for African liberation movements, how differently…

The Student Living Room at the KOG will soon officially open its doors. All Leiden Law School staff and students are welcome to come and see this new space during the official opening event on Tuesday 23 May at 12.00 hrs. A free lunch will be provided for all, we’ll raise a toast with a glass of bubbles,…

Our Keyholders are a close network of over 500 committed donors who actively support Leiden University. Pauline Höhner-Regout, who started working at the LUF since April, talks about her role as a Keyholder fundraiser.

Sophie Rose is one of the fellows of the Ammodo Science Fellowship 2024. She will use this fellowship to conduct research at Leiden University.

Soil ecologists Emilia Hannula (Leiden) and Elly Morriën (UvA) received the Golden Medal of Teylers Tweede Genootschap on 5 November. They received the prize for their submission to a competition on sustainable soil management.