We are pleased to announce that Lidwien will continue to fulfil the role of Student Assessor within the Faculty of Archaeology's Board next academic year. Since her start in September last year, building on her previous experience in the Education Committee, she has continued to develop into a connecting…

In September 2013 I moved to Leiden from the UK to take up the position of Assistant Professor covering politics and international relations on the BA Russian Studies and International Studies programmes and the MA Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Leiden University’s Rector Magnificus, Professor Hester Bijl, has been reappointed for a second term by the Board of Governors.

Over the past year, twelve articles by Leiden humanities scholars have been published on The Conversation, an English-language platform that translates science-related news for a broad audience. Read their articles here!

Research

It is the seventh year in a row that the Faculty of Archaeology is placed in the top ten of archaeological institutes worldwide. The QS World University Rankings by Subject looks at criteria like academic reputation and citation ratios.

On 30 October 2025, Eleonora Dagienė successfully defended her PhD thesis at Leiden University, titled ‘Quantitative Research Assessment and its Unintended Consequences’.

This summer, Jeffrey Fynn-Paul started as a lecturer at the Institute's Social and Economic History section.

On Thursday 2 June, the research conference for academic staff members of the Institute of Public Administration took place at the Beeld en Geluid venue in The Hague. The aim of the conference was to showcase the ongoing research conducted at the Public Administration and explore the potential for more…

‘The Oscars of the natural sciences’, is what they are called: the Breakthrough Prizes awarded annually in America by the Breakthrough Foundation. Part of this are the New Horizons prizes for early-stage researchers. Sebastiaan Haffert, researcher at the Observatory, is this year's winner.

Education, Research

The many thousands of small celestial bodies beyond Neptune’s orbit may have ended up there due to a star that passed close to the solar system billions of years ago. This is shown by Leiden simulation expert Simon Portegies Zwart, along with his German and Dutch colleagues. ‘We are answering several…

On the second floor of the Sylvius Laboratory, new labs are being built for researchers of the Faculties of Social and Behavioural Sciences and Humanities. After a successful tender construction has recently started.

Joëlle Koning has been appointed as Head of Student Affairs (OSZ) in the Faculty of Humanities from 1 July.

Quietly read a book in our new reading nook, listen to interesting and bizarre stories set in early twentieth-century Leiden, walk past literary locations in Leiden and watch the best film adapted from a Leiden novel as decided on by you. April is Literary Leiden month! A month in which we pay special…

Rose Vossen has been named winner of the Young Star Award 2021. The Life Science and Technology student received the award on Monday from Ewine van Dishoeck, the founder of the award. Vossen wins a cheque for 2,500 euros for her exceptional results as a bachelor's student. During her final bachelor…

The Research Support Portal makes it easy for researchers and support staff to find information on research support at Leiden University.

The map of Suriname, drawn in 1830 and acquired by Leiden University Libraries (UBL) in 2023, has now been made available online via Digital Collections in open access. The map can be viewed and downloaded in high resolution.

Leiden PhD candidate Mona Shahab climbed Mount Everest two years ago to raise money for the education of disadvantaged children in Egypt. She made it to the top and posed there with the University flag. She recently presented the flag to Rector Carel Stolker.

Faculteitsbestuur begonnen

Workshop brings multidisciplinary experts together to debate proposed detection technologies and their impact on fundamental rights.

We are living in turbulent times. Various conflicts in other parts of the world at times give rise to feelings of anxiety, unrest and anger in our country too. We also see this happening in our academic community.

These are turbulent times at Dutch universities. We have all seen what has been and is still happening at various campuses in the country. Protests, demonstrations, occupations. Situations and scenes that deeply affect us all.

When we hear the word ‘bird house’, do we process it as a whole or does our brain see it as ‘bird’ and ‘house’? PhD student Jiaqi Wang explored this for speakers of Mandarin Chinese.

Leiden University is pressing ahead with Open Science and Recognition & Rewards! This is the key message of the new Academia in Motion steering group.

Through Kiem, Leiden University is providing 25 annual seed grants between 2024 and 2026 to develop new interdisciplinary (interfaculty) teaching/research collaborations and encounters.

Since 1 November 2025, Prof. Dr. Luc Sels has been the new president of Leiden University's Executive Board. In a message to our university he introduces himself and shares his first impressions.

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has acquired a rare manuscript map of Suriname. The map from 1830 is almost 2.5 meters long and is highly detailed. It was hand-drawn by Helmuth Hendrik Hiemcke (1808-1858), one of the official surveyors employed by the colonial administration, and shows Suriname in…

For nine years, Mirjam de Baar was vice-dean at the Faculty of Humanities. On Monday 17 March, she took her leave in the Academy Building. ‘You have worn out two deans, two vice-deans, four business managers and six assessors.’

On Tuesday 27 May a first meeting was held in response to the demonstration and occupation at the Wijnhaven building on 6 May. The aim was to explore how the university can balance the fundamental right to protest with ensuring a safe environment for all students and staff.

Education, ICT

Recently, Jaap van den Herik, professor emeritus Law and IT, was interviewed by the BNVKI (Benelux Association for Artificial Intelligence).

Heritage Quest is a large-scale citizen science project in the field of archaeology that allows anyone to contribute to scientific research. It is the first large-scale archaeological citizen science project in The Netherlands and one of the few of its kind in the world. As part of the Cultural Heritage…

The tour for programme chairs through the new Humanities Hub covered just one corridor. Previously, the labs were spread across the campus, but now most of them have been consolidated in the Huizinga Building.

Is your strategic vote actually strategic? How can the Netherlands form a stable government? And what should the next government do about migration, defence and the housing crisis? This is what our experts have to say.

End Fossil, Open Leiden and Students for Palestine incorrectly claim that a meeting will be held with the Executive Board on Friday 11 April. This statement is to correct these claims and clarify the situation.

Dr Maikel Kuijpers, a staff member at the Faculty of Archaeology and a guest researcher at the Centre for Environmental Sciences (CML), is participating in an exploratory interdisciplinary study on the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Made possible by a Seed Fund of the Leiden University Global…

It is the eighth year in a row that the Faculty of Archaeology is placed in the top ten of archaeological institutes worldwide. The QS World University Rankings by Subject looks at criteria like academic reputation and citation ratios.

Editors: Irene Hadiprayitno and Rizal Shidiq (Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands)

This March, LUCSoR alumnus Dr. Mattias Brand received the Gerardus van der Leeuw PhD Dissertation Award from the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (NGG) for his dissertation, “The Manichaeans of Kellis: Religion, Community, and Everyday Life”. It is a biennial award for a PhD dissertation…

In the coming academic year, the Psychology programme will have 7 teaching weeks per block instead of 8. Also, the exam weeks will be shifted slightly. What will be the impact of this new measure on workload for students and staff?

The third edition of the Krijn Rietveld Memorial Innovation Award was won by Anne Dirkson, former LIACS PhD student. During her PhD she researched the automatic collection of patient experiences from online forums. ‘With this work, Anne has shown how the exchange of knowledge between medical professionals,…

Social impact is becoming increasingly important for researchers. On Thursday, Nov. 17, the Faculty of Humanities is organizing Engaging Humanities - Exploring Impact: a day all about impact.

The winner of the 2022 Spring edition of the NWO Venture Challenge was announced during the Dutch Biotech Event. The innovative startup Iprotics has developed specific proteasome inhibitors that potentially treat multiple myeloma (MM) without the side-effects known from traditional proteasome inhibi…

Having served on the Executive Board for over nine years, the last five of which as Rector Magnificus, Hester Bijl will leave Leiden University at the start of next year. In a new step in her career, she will become Rector Magnificus on the Executive Board of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)…

Wereldwijd worden veel samenwerkingsverbanden met Rusland stopgezet vanwege de oorlog in Oekraïne. Hoe zit dat met de ruimtevaart, waar de Russen ook een groot aandeel in hebben?

Archaeologist Tuna Kalayci investigates roads in a recent edited book. What happens if we think of roads not only as containers of action but also as dynamic and complex phenomena, as the action itself? This question inspired Dr Tuna Kalayci to bring together various studies across a wide range of epochs…

Three PhD candidates from Leiden University have been awarded a Mosaic 2.0 scholarship for their PhD research. The Dutch Research Council (NWO) Mosaic 2.0 programme is aimed at an underrepresented group of graduates with a migrant background.

Organisation, Human resources

Research to experiment with bacteria that grow like plants has been granted the NWO XS grant. These bacteria use light and carbon dioxide to grow, and will be designed especially for use in the biotechnological field. Tijn Delzenne and his supervisor Dennis Claessen can spend 50.000 euros on the exp…