Benjamin Marius Telders, professor of international law, died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen on 6 April 1945. He was an example of civil courage before and during the occupation. He spoke up against inequity and injustice.

Promotor: M.L. van Hecke

The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic (LAPP) is a pro bono initiative concerning legal questions on plastics and is founded to address and research the legal issues related to plastic pollution.

Promotor: P.M. Brakefield

Environmental challenges such as plastic pollution and biodiversity loss require extensive monitoring. Citizen science, in which members of the public participate in scientific research, has therefore become an important approach in environmental science.

New interdisciplinary essays on key topics in mimetic studies, including three contributions by internationally renowned philosopher Catherine Malabou.

In light of climate change, it is crucial to determine whether plant species can adapt to future climates to avoid extinction. Plants adapt to various conditions by altering their functional traits, such as leaf size or photosynthetic rate. Some traits appear linked and vary together between species,…

Help us spot and clean up the plastic in the canals of Leiden! Leiden University is calling on the good folk of Leiden to help our researchers study the plastic in the city’s canals. And if you’d like our canals to be plastic-free, why not donate towards a fleet of canoes to clean them up?

The Plastic Soup Foundation and Parley for the Oceans hosted the very first Plastic Heath Summit in Amsterdam on 3 October, covering the most relevant and pressing health concerns surrounding plastics and human health. Beyond discussing the latest findings in the field we asked the urgent question:…

Plastic pollution is a major environmental issue. Although regulation is being adopted, plastic pollution is still increasing. Effective and strict enforcement is key and NGOs and civilians can be instrumental in this.

Plastics have become an integral part of modern society due to their versatility and durability.

Promotores: Prof.dr. P.M. Brakefield, Prof.dr. B.J. Zwaan (Wageningen Universiteit)

Merijn Tinga, the Plastic Soup Surfer, launched the Pick Up 10 campaign. This campaign, supported by Google and National Geographic, uses photo recognition to identify and monitor litter through an app.

FFashion, particularly fast fashion, is a major contributor to plastic pollution in the form of microplastic fibres. The 80-year-old Martindale test for interior textiles could be part of the solution.

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Two weeks after 3 October the Leiden canals were still full of plastic disposable cups. Auke-Florian Hiemstra and fellow students have fished thousands of these cups out of the canals and photographed them. Now they put a photo of one of these canal cups on Instagram every day.

Plastic pollution is a major global problem. In Geneva, world leaders are discussing a possible plastics treaty. Lecturer Esther Kentin talked to Dutch news platform NU.nl about the UN summit: ‘A treaty is only a small part of the solution.’

This is the team of LAPP:

Plastic pollution is a major global problem. In Geneva, world leaders are discussing a possible plastics treaty. Lecturer Esther Kentin talked to Dutch news platform NU.nl about the UN summit: ‘A treaty is only a small part of the solution.’

From 27 to 31 January, a workshop on the regulation of plastic pollution based on scientific evidence will be held at the Lorentz Center in Leiden.

On Friday 8 February, the first Plastic Avengers Conference took place in Amsterdam. Initiator Merijn Tinga, the Plastic Soup Surfer from Leiden, brought together ‘independent plastic fighters' to arrive at a manifesto against plastic pollution. The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic was also invited…

At the recent UN summit in Geneva, representatives from more than 180 countries failed to reach a global plastics agreement. Esther Kentin, a lecturer at Leiden Law School, spoke to media outlets on the issue: ‘Human health is at stake.’

On 3 May2017 LAPP participated in a meeting on microplastics at the Plastic Soup Foundation.

Emeritus Professor Ben Lugtenberg received ‘The Arima Award for Applied Microbiology’ from the IUMS (International Union of Microbial Societies) for his life-time contributions to this field.

Ben Wielstra studies hybrid zones, regions in which distinct populations of organisms meet, mate and produce genetically admixed offspring. In the journal Current Biology, he introduces hybrid zones in an accessible way.

Plastic cigarette filters are a major source of litter and microplastics pollution. Legal experts from Leiden University, commissioned by a Dutch ministry, examined policy options to reduce this pollution and whether a national ban is legally feasible.