How safe are the dozens of apps on our phone? And how do we make sure organisations don’t get hacked? Cybersecurity expert Olga Gadyatskaya works on all these kind of security issues. Next to that, she hopes to inspire young girls to consider a career in cybersecurity. ‘Too many young women think: I’m…

Information provided by the Tax and Customs Administration is something that concerns every citizen. So it is not surprising that the Tax hotline receives around 10 million calls each year. The Benefits Affair emphasised the citizen’s perspective in communications with the Tax and Customs Administration.…

The state, and specifically the idea of nationality, is almost all-determining in social life in the Netherlands. It determines how people identify, how we interact with each other, and what (in)equality in society looks like. However, ultimately, the idea that we can divide people into different nationalities…

Universele Verklaring voor de Rechten van de Mens en het Genocide verdrag, 75 jaar Oekraine

Professor Henk te Velde started as interim dean of the Faculty of Humanities on 1 March. Mark Rutgers' successor is faced with the task of getting the faculty back to financial health.

After a detour via the ANWB in Munich, alumna Manon Schouten works as a history teacher at two schools. ‘It's so rewarding to see the material resonate with students.’

We know we should do it, and we often want to, but… Why is it so hard to live a healthier life? Professor of Behavioural Interventions in Population Health Marieke Adriaanse explains.

Alumnus José Figuerero tells us about how a Criminologist can work at Booking.com and why he would have liked to have had more law-related courses in his master's programme.

Music lovers are welcome at this free open-air concert celebrating 450 years of Leiden University, on Sunday 6 July. This special jubilee edition of the Rapenburg Canal Concert will feature a unique orchestra made up of our students, staff and alumni, performing on a floating stage.

Dutch mosquitos are more resilient to saltwater than previously thought. Environmental scientist Sam Boerlijst discovered this during his PhD research at the Hortus botanicus. This knowledge is crucial for understanding how mosquito-borne disease transmission might change in the future.

Lydie Cabane, Assistant Professor in Governance of Crises at the Institute for Security and Global Affairs, recently published the book The Government of Disasters. In this book Lydie explores how the South African state bureaucracy reacts to disasters.

Associate Professor Lettie Dorst has received a Vidi grant to research how machine translation programmes such as Google Translate and ChatGPT translate words and expressions used metaphorically. This still regularly goes wrong, resulting in far too literal, incorrect and sometimes incomprehensible…

How do animals choose their partners? The answer is simple: it’s all about quality. While humans tend to wear clothes that happen to be in fashion, animals do nothing without a reason. Behind beautiful plumage or a deafening roar is only one message: I am in great shape. The evolutionary courtship displays…

For more than twenty years, Johan Visser has served as a family and juvenile court judge in The Hague where he is also a board member. Once a student at Leiden Law School, he reflects here on his student days and career.

What does it feel like to become a citizen in a new country? For her PhD research, Hannah Bliersbach immersed herself in the world of immigration. She interviewed dozens of new citizens in Germany and Canada and found that citizenship is, above all, a transactional process.

Niels Broekman did an internship at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, where he worked on, among other things, biodiversity advocacy. After his internship, he decided to go in a different direction: ‘An internship can be very enlightening in helping you figure out where your interests…

Several years ago, two amateur archaeologists from Brabant discovered over a hundred Roman coins near to Berlicum in the north of the province. After years of research, it now appears that the location, close to a ford in the river, was a site for offerings. Another interesting fact is that the coins…

The annual LION Image award goes to the 30 micrometer long 3D printed microboat image that went viral earlier in October 2020, submitted by Rachel Doherty of the Daniela Kraft lab.

Victoria Nyst's love for sign language was sparked when she accidentally ended up at a deaf school while studying African linguistics. The university lecturer has since been awarded a Vici grant to research the history of these languages.

Leiden students often prefer complicated theory and a difficult test to experiments. Yet associate professor Paul Logman believes students learn a lot from practical teaching. He challenges his students to come up with their research questions themselves. The Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) is at…

‘Raising awareness of the disorder is crucial since borderline personality disorder (BPD) still faces considerable stigma ’, says Anne Krause-Utz (Clinical Psychology) . Together with an international team of excellent scientists, Krause-Utz provides an update of current knowledge about this disorder,…

Being a student member of the faculty board? Ebrar Kaya fulfilled this role last year as assessor of the Faculty of Humanities. In September, Anne Wellink took over from him. In this interview, we look back and ahead at the assessorship with them.

European procurement policy is full of good intentions like sustainability and innovation, but in practice it often proves impractical. Researcher and procurement officer Alexander Schermerhorn shows in his dissertation 'Public Procurement Distance' why rules clash with reality.

‘What I find most alluring about soil life is that you can steer it,’ researcher Martijn Bezemer of the Institute Biology Leiden (IBL) reveals. ‘You can ask: What do you want? And then I can transform the soil into something you need. At least, that is what we thought.’

Koen Keijzer combined three mathematical models into one unified system capable of making meaningful predictions about how cells form blood vessels. This helps biologists studying the chaotic, leaky blood vessels found in and around tumours.

As a mathematician, Fred Rohde (1948) explored the world of numbers. As a photographer, he captured demonstrations. And now he’s reconstructing his mother’s wartime story – an extraordinary tale of her stay with an Austrian family, the inventors of asbestos cement.

The documentary ‘De Stem van het Kind’ (The Voice of the Child) gives an impressive insight into the work of juvenile court judges. Documentary maker Pieter Fleury, Professor of Children’s Rights Ton Liefaard and juvenile court judge Johan Visser worked together for the past seven years to make the…

Roderick Bouman is collection manager of the Leiden Hortus botanicus. He keeps track of which plants there are in the garden, where they come from and makes sure visitors can find the right information about them. ‘We are like a regular museum,’ says Bouman. ‘Except that our objects are alive. That…

As an employee, the Faculty of Law at Leiden University also allows you to go on an exchange. Read here how Esther Kentin experienced this and where to find more information.

Like many moot court competitions around the world, the Leiden-Sarin International Air Law Moot Court Competition was conducted fully online this year. The International Air Law Moot Court is an unparalleled forum for bringing together students and aviation professionals who share a passion for air…

What motivates citizens to participate in a citizen science project on plastic pollution? And does that motivation change over time? Liselotte Rambonnet tried to answer these and other questions with her research on the Clean Rivers (‘Schone Rivieren’) project. Rambonnet is a PhD student at the Institute…

Maak kennis met Siggie, online coaching voor FGGA-studenten

In 2021, more than 2,600 students and staff members shared their ideas for Leiden University and the Strategic Plan for the coming years, under the banner of LDN>>>FWD. What will be the guiding principle for taking decisions? Which aspects will be emphasised? The last consultations have now been concluded…

It has only recently been discovered that single-celled organisms (bacteria and archaea) also have histones—proteins that structure DNA. Now, Leiden PhD candidate Samuel Schwab has found that the histones in these organisms are much more diverse than previously thought. Schwab and his colleagues describe…

An atomic vandal has finally been caught! Scientists from Leiden University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Laboratory have uncovered the mysterious cause behind the rapid corrosion of platinum electrodes. This breakthrough paves the way for more affordable green hydrogen production and…

Black-and-white photographs filled with solemn young men and distinguished professors line the walls of the Grand Auditorium. Young women are missing from the photos; women rarely obtained PhDs 50 years ago. And this article is about that group, the PhD candidates between 1966 and 1972, who were invited…

Marco van Eijk is the new Educational Director of the Bachelor's Life Science and Technology (LST). Since 1 September he has been responsible for ensuring the quality of the programme. ‘LST is a unique programme and everyone has to keep working hard for that. That is my main task.’

Paul Wouters has been involved in open science for 30 years, from his first introduction to a preprint server in 1992 to his recent roles as Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences and open science ambassador for Academia in Motion. Wouters is now retiring. He is leaving with high hopes…

A special type of mirror to reflect X-rays has more possible applications than space research. Targeted radiation therapy for cancer, for example. Next to his full-time job, physicist David Girou mapped out the possibilities. He will receive his PhD on 14 June.

What practical steps can we take to resolve cross-border claims to looted art and prevent illicit trafficking in cultural goods? That's what the European Parliament asked Leiden legal scholar Evelien Campfens. Her advice: develop a registration system, issue art with a ‘passport’ and set up a European…

Luning and Hein receiving a LUF grant to research the intricate relationship between infrastructure projects and their impact on geopolitics, economics, politics, and culture in Africa

What do people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama have in common? They have mastered the art of public speaking. There are plenty of books on learning this skill, but one aspect of rhetoric remains underexposed in science: how do you make sure the audience remembers your message? Martijn Wackers…

In the 16th and 17th centuries, many Northern-Netherlandish artists drew outdoors to train their hands and eyes, and to record landscapes and nature. In her inaugural lecture on 21 March 2022, Yvonne Bleyerveld, Professor by Special Appointment of Art on Paper and Parchment, draws our attention to a…

He did an English-taught degree, completed a master’s abroad and now teaches on an English-taught programme at Leiden University College The Hague. Jan Meijer is the definition of an international researcher and he’s proud of it.

For many a first-year, student life has well and truly begun. This also applies to students in The Hague, who were thrown in at the deep end during the HOP introduction week. We paid them a visit on a sunny afternoon at Landgoed Clingendael.

It is the final stretch for the students of FGGA. Summer is approaching and they are working hard to complete everything before the summer holidays. We asked some of them how they look back at the academic year. ‘Being a mentor during HOP week is something I can recommend to everyone’

PhD candidate Layla van Wieringen examined how extremist beliefs are passed on within households. In her dissertation ‘Rotten Trees, Bad Apples? Understanding the Intergenerational Transmission of Extremism’, she reveals a reality that media and politics rarely address.

The university makes staff aware of the importance of cybersecurity at work. And that is essential, say our privacy and security officers. Because the number of cyberattacks is increasing, hackers are getting smarter all the time and by far the majority of problems are caused by human error. ‘Is that…

Since the end of May, the faculty AI working group has set to work under Marije Schneider’s guidance. Drawing on recommendations from the university’s working group AI in Education (AIED), the team is eager to make headway on actual applications in our teaching, research and organisational practices…

Last Thursday the Dutch House of Representatives held a debate on children being put into care when the childcare benefits scandal (toeslagenaffaire) had caused problems for their families. Four Leiden University academics were asked by the House to produce a fact sheet for this debate, bringing together…