Jeroen van Gessel’s lecturers didn’t always have time for extensive feedback on his written assignments. So, together with tech-savvy friend Menno Hahury, he founded Eduface, a startup to develop an AI teaching assistant. ‘The first users now work three times faster.'

The digital society is vulnerable, as we have seen over the past weeks. Our Dean Paul Wouters shares his thoughts and encourages to recover during the time around the holidays.

Elise Dusseldorp has been appointed Professor in the Methodology and Statistics of Psychological Research. In the same way that she spends her spare time rambling through the forest, as a professor she sifts through colleagues’ research data. ‘I often come across information that doesn’t appear in the…

The Guggenheim Fellowship is a prestigious award for US nationals. There are more than 3,000 applications every year, and this year only 188 were honoured. Professor Jonathan Silk is one of these 188, the first ever at Leiden University, and he tells us more about the fellowship and what he will do…

Nowadays they can cause the fall of ministers, but once upon a time receipts were a new phenomenon. Associate Professor Robert Stein is to receive a grant from NIAS to map their origins.

How do you get fit after these challenging times? How do you actively start a healthy lifestyle? Healthy University Leiden would like to address these topics during the upcoming from #COVID to #GOFIT Week, which will take place from 21 to 25 June 2021.

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?

‘It was not always accepted, but I just wanted to be a researcher. Now, I am as happy as can be.’ It is one of the quotes from the International Women’s Day presentation for Biology students. Seven women, working as researchers and teachers at the CML, IBL, and Naturalis, shared their experiences with…

Heike Vethaak and Egbert Jongen from the Department of Economics of Leiden Law School have been commissioned by the Dutch Trade Union Confederation (FNV) to conduct research on the development and distribution of wealth in the Netherlands. The research will start in July and the outcome is expected…

Organisation

It will be a summer filled with conferences at the Faculty of Humanities in Leiden. In the coming months, there will be something for everyone at the university, especially in the field of languages and cultures of Africa and the Middle East.

Staff and students who want some quiet time out will now have a low-sensory room available to them. Lipsius 1.38 has been specially designed to help people relax.

On January 1st Jasper Knoester started as our new dean. How is he finding it? What kinds of things is he doing and what does his day look like? In each newsletter Jasper gives a peek into his life as dean.

Professor Herman Paul has been appointed Scientific Director of the Institute of History from 1 February 2025. ‘Especially in these times, transparency is essential.’

Long into the 19th century, seascapes were considered an expression of patriotism. Artists who painted in a 17th century style were valued more. This tradition stifled innovation in the genre, Cécile Bosman has concluded. She will defend her PhD thesis on 13 October.

Nearly all students have faced many challenges this academic year. Students Nasreen Javanjoo (Religious Studies) and Marcos Cordova (Literary Studies) talk about their experiences of studying in the time of coronavirus.

The discovery of a planet far too large for its sun defies models about the formation of solar systems and planets. In a paper in Science, researchers, including Yamila Miguel of Leiden Observatory, report the discovery of a planet more than 13 times heavier than Earth orbiting the ultracool dwarf star…

On January 1st Jasper Knoester started as our new dean. How is he finding it? What kinds of things is he doing and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives a peek into his life as dean.

LIACS assistant professor Ben van Werkhoven leads the development of software for optimising graphics processing units. By now, version 1.0 of 'Kernel Tuner' is just around the corner. This milestone shows that the software is ready for serious use.

How can we better prepare students for their practicals, so that they learn more from them? Marjo de Graauw and her colleagues want to renew science education. Together they will develop interactive teaching materials to introduce students to laboratory courses. They are receiving a SURF grant of €100,000…

In the academic world interest in interdisciplinary research is growing. It can help to solve the big challenges of our times. But starting a research project that covers several disciplines is not always easy. This was one of the conclusions at a Young Academy Leiden (YAL) symposium. What are the c…

She works four days a week as a project manager at LIACS and trains six days a week with the Dutch Para Climbing team. Christiane Luttikhuizen balances her role at the Faculty of Science with competing at a high level in climbing.

Mark Rutgers has been reappointed as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. After a first term where the focus was mainly internal, it’s time to look outwards.

In a world increasingly shaped by conflict, it becomes ever more important to create space for empathy, understanding, and informed public discourse. That is the intention the Shelter documentary and immersive installation aims to achieve as it arrives at Leiden University.

An online ceremony, no party and then no signature in the Sweat Room: during the pandemic, many graduation traditions could not take place. Now anyone who graduated in corona time may still come and sign their name.

How to combine being a mom and a career-oriented researcher? As member of the RISE junior board, postdoc Monica Varela wants to set an example. ‘It’s not always easy, but I want to show young scientists that you can continue your career when having a child.'

Professor Isabelle Duyvesteyn will be the new programme chair of International Studies. As of 1 September, she will be at the helm of the largest programme of the Faculty of Humanities.

Mariken Teeuwen started at the Institute for History as a professor by special appointment of Script Culture of the Middle Ages on 1 March. ‘I’m looking forward to doing research together with students.’

Would you be more likely to take the train for your next work trip, instead of flying, if you automatically got a first-class ticket? For many Leiden University academics, the answer is yes – according to research looking at what motivates academic staff to choose trains over planes.

A team of European astronomers has found a silicate-based weather system on a cloudy gas planet around the star WASP-107. It is the first time astronomers have found silicate clouds and rain. They also conclude that temperatures deeper in the atmosphere are rising rapidly. 'The presence of clouds has…

Ratna Saptari is since 2007 Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology. She has always been involved with issues of human rights and Indonesian workers' rights. This August she retired. But she won't sit still. She continues her voluntary work and wants to…

From assistance in the event of natural disasters to peace-keeping missions. As a communication adviser, Leonoor van Poelgeest goes to all those destinations where the Royal Navy are active. Why did she choose this work and how has her Public Administration study helped her?

Alumna Nadia Kadhim started in 2017 as a corporate lawyer implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at one of the companies where she volunteered. By late 2022 she had received both a Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Award and was on the Forbes 30 under 30 list with her legal start-up…

Judith Pollmann, Professor of Early Modern Dutch History, has been awarded the Spinoza Prize. ‘An unbelievable honour.’

Nadine Akkerman's book Spycraft, which she co-wrote with historian of science Pete Langman, has garnered top publications, with reviews featured in The Telegraph, Literary Review, The Spectator, History Today, and the Times Literary Supplement.

If you’ve written a scientific manuscript, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with the app-switching two-step that happens when you copy your data from one program and paste them into another. That time-tested workflow does the job, but it isn’t always the most efficient process. In an article on…

The Irish meat magnate Larry Goodman is under scrutiny: he is thought to have evaded taxes by using a Dutch company, among other things.

Recently, we had the LACDR PhD Introductory course on Drug Research for starting PhD candidates. It was great to have this live event live in castle Oud Poelgeest, after two years of restrictions.

Human resources

This is the eleventh time that the Moot Court Challenge Cup has been awarded! This time for best counsel in academic year 2022-2023.

The Moot Court trophy has been awarded for the sixteenth time! This time, it went to the best pleader in the spring of the 2024-2025 academic year.

The Moot Court trophy has been awarded for the fourteenth time! This time, it went to the best pleader in the spring of the 2023-2024 academic year.

For the Train your Brain project, Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam received the Medical Delta Talent Acceleration Grant. 'My pilot project does not focus on a specific research question, but introduces a new technology and creates an innovative lab set-up.'

On Wednesday 16 June 2021, Karim Khan was sworn in at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Experts say this is no easy time to join the ICC.

On Monday we welcomed our students to the faculty with hearts, chocolate, and asking them to take the National Student Survey (NSE). A combination of Valentine’s Day and the start of the NSE campaign week – encouraging students to take the online survey.

Heavy! This is the first word that comes to lecturer Marjo de Graauw’s mind when she looks back on the past year. But with her creativity and experience with educational innovation she was nonetheless able to provide her usual high standard of teaching.

Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, is currently facing serious criticism. Over a short space of time, it has been significantly expanded. And the larger the Agency becomes, the more often it comes under fire.

Organisation, Security

The Leiden archaeologist Harold Berghuis was closely involved in archaeological discoveries off the coast of Java. Skull fragments and other fossil remains provide new insights into the world of Homo erectus. The discovery was the subject of numerous news reports.