In a new article in the journal Scientific Reports, Leiden archaeologist Wei Chu and colleagues report on recent excavations in Western Romania at the site of Româneşti, one of the most important sites in southeastern Europe associated with the earliest Homo sapiens. The site gives an important glimpse…

The Indonesian government has been trying to enforce marriage and divorce laws for some time. These efforts are encountering resistance from both local communities and the Indonesian Supreme Court. PhD candidate Al Farabi investigated where this resistance comes from.

This year’s Education Market will be happening very soon. On 19 June, staff members will be on hand at a variety of stands in the Huizinga Building, ready to inspire you with their experiences. Two of the lecturers describe what they will be doing.

This February Metje Postma will stop teaching and retire. But she is not done with the discipline yet: she will finish her PhD and there are still five films on the shelf that she plans to complete.

Writing a book on the recent history of Leiden University in corona times. For educational and policy historian Pieter Slaman (34), this has meant working in the attic of his parents’ house while they looked after his daughter, along with numerous online conversations and very few, if any, visits to…

A widely publicized research article in Nature Metabolism by scientist from the University of Pittsburgh, suggests a high protein diet which is popular among for instance fitness enthusiasts, may be harmful to the cardiovascular system. National media outlets such as NRC Handelsdagblad and NPO 1 Radio…

In de maanden maart, april en mei organiseerde het programma Transparantie in Informatie, van de ministeries van Economische Zaken en Klimaat (EZK) en Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit (LNV), gesprekken over de veranderopgave naar een Open Departement. De sessies hadden als doel om een eerlijk en…

The transcription factor MYC is a master regulator implicated in the majority of human cancers. Despite its central role, MYC has long been considered "undruggable" by small molecules, lacking binding pockets and featuring disordered regions. While larger biomolecules could potentially disrupt MYC function,…

Buried beneath a Suffolk forest, archaeologists have uncovered the earliest known human-made fire. A fire that was sparked 400,000 years ago. This stunning UK discovery may rewrite our evolutionary story, potentially pushing fire-making back by more than 350,000 years.

Whereas the Netherlands Court of Audit used to conduct an investigation once a year, the average civil service organisation now has a few per year to contend with. Is so much going wrong nowadays? Not at all, says Professor by Special Appointment Sjoerd Keulen. ‘It’s one of the methods that makes democracy…

‘In the field of AI, Leiden is still a relatively unseen university,’ says Thomas Dohmen. The brand-new Director AI Collaboration Center, would like to forge a Leiden AI collaboration network, with sustainable and impactful relationships between the university and civil society organisations. The question…

Research Master’s students in Archaeology Rosa Seepma and Aida Tadesse received an Incentive Prize from the Dutch Association for Physical Anthropology (NVFA). They were awarded this honor for their ongoing study on the human osteology collection at the Allard Pierson Museum.

Tahir Abbas was named full professor of radicalization studies by the Executive Board. This chair, according to Abbas, is an excellent opportunity for ISGA to broaden its current focus on terrorism and political violence. Abbas was interviewed about his ambitions, writing as a form of relaxation, and…

With a single sample of water or soil, researches can analyse the DNA of everything that is living in that environment. During her research, PhD candidate Beilun Zhao discovered a way to analyse not only the kind of species, but also the age of the species in a water sample. The method showed its first…

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…

After the May elections a new University Council has now taken seat. The university democracy is the result of the long-lived national student protests in 1969. Students from Leiden joined the protests for greater representation, although their actions were less revolutionary than at other universities.…

Ward Hoskens started ten years ago as an intern at one of Leiden's most iconic buildings: the Pieterskerk. Now he is doing his PhD on the question of how the function of this 'church that is no longer a church' changed over recent centuries.

A patent for what may be a potent, new antibiotic. And: a clear overview of promising approaches to overcome a crucial resistance tactic employed by bacteria. In the span of one week, two researchers from Leiden are receiving their PhDs, each of them on an important step in the battle against bacteria…

The Netherlands is losing plant species that rely on pollination by insects. Leiden environmental scientist Kaixuan Pan demonstrates this after analysing 87 years of measurements from over 365,000 plots. The news is alarming for our biodiversity and food security. ‘75 per cent of our crops and 90% of…

In its session of 15 April 2024, the Austrian Academy of Sciences elected professor Petra Sijpesteijn as one of its new Corresponding Members.

For three days, our faculty was all about We are Science Week: the community event full of fun activities for our staff and students. Besides the famous Beat the Professor PubQuiz, this year you could take USC yoga classes in the Gorlaeus garden, escape from Einstein's Escaperoom and sing along at the…

The Faculty of Humanities’ On-Campus Master’s Experience Day was a pleasantly busy event. The information sessions and corresponding information market went down well with interested undergraduates.

Assistant Professor Juan Masullo of the Institute of Political Science has been awarded the 2025 Alexander George Best Article Award for his work on interviews and process tracing.

As of 1 January, Wouter Kalf has been appointed Education Director at the Institute for Philosophy.

Wouter Weeda has been appointed Scientific Director of the Institute of Psychology by the Board of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. He will start on 1 December 2025 for a period of three years, succeeding Hanneke Hulst.

Postdoctoral researcher Veronica Tamorri and a PhD candidate Maia Casna held an online osteoarchaeological class for secondary school children. However, based on reactions, the exchange of ideas seemed to go both ways.

The Faculty's Academia in Motion (fAiM) Roadshow has embarked on an inspiring journey across our institutes. The goal? To work together with all the expertise within the faculty towards a cultural transformation focused on Recognition & Rewards and Open Science.

Science journalist Anna Gimbrère and physicist Julia Cramer will open the Quantum Escape Room in Eindhoven on Wednesday, 17th of December. Researchers from Leiden worked closely with the designers to make sure the escape room is not only exciting, but also truly quantum.

In 2022, Leiden will be the European Capital of Science. An enthusiastic team from our Faculty is already busy planning the activities. Today we speak with Marin Visscher. As a project coordinator, he seeks the connection between university and society.

Leiden's iGEM team has won high honours at the Grand Jamboree in Paris. The biology students came second in the Overgraduate category with their project PHAse Out. They also took home awards for Best Biomanufacturing Project, Best Wiki and Best Entrepreneurship as well as a Gold Medal. To top it all…

On January 30th, students from the interdisciplinary LDE minor "Co-creating a Healthy Society" presented their findings to external clients, such as the Municipal Health Service (GGD) and the Municipality of Leiden. The minor started two years ago. Led by Sandra van Dijk and Coen Wirtz, it is now a…

Astronomers led by Simon Portegies Zwart used simulations to reconstruct how three stars were ejected from the star cluster R136, 60,000 years ago. The analysis reveals that five stars were involved in the event in the Tarantula Nebula.

Inspectors at the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration can require people to provide more information relating to their tax returns. Esther Huiskers-Stoop from the Tax Law department investigated the rules in place to protect us when we are required to provide information to the tax authorities.

Dr. Salwa El-Awa delivers a talk on Wednesday, November 2nd, on "Ambiguity in the Qur'an".

The shock wave triggered by one of the five galaxies making up the iconic Stephan’s Quintet appears to be less disruptive than previously thought, with the shock likely being cushioned by dust particles in the surrounding gas. This is according to the analysis of the first scientific observations of…

For the first time, astronomers have observed in three dimensions that gas from spiral galaxies is blown upwards and downwards at high speed, far out of the galaxy. They thereby confirm the theory of galaxy evolution: that star-forming galaxies create intergalactic gas flows by discharging gas along…

The members of the Board of ALTEX Edition, the ALTEX Editorial Board and ALTEX Editorial Office elect the winner of the annual award out of all main articles published in the previous year; articles including members of the Board of ALTEX Edition or ALTEX Editorial Office as first authors are excluded.…

In the days following Christmas, Christa Tobler gave a series of interviews to Swiss newspapers and Swiss radio about the new Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK and about what it might mean for Switzerland-EU relations and the draft EU-Swiss institutional framework agreement.

An international team of scientists, including Xander Tielens of Leiden Observatory, has used space telescope Hubble and the ALMA observatory to show that UV radiation from massive stars can prevent planets from forming. The researchers publish their findings on 1 March in the journal Science.

Nature News reported on the use of bow-and-arrow for hunting based on the research made on small points found in a 54,000-year-old cave site in southern France.

On Tuesday, December 9 2025, Prof. Koen Ottenheyn delivered the last Austria Centre lunch talk of 2025. Prof. Ottenheyn serves as a professor of architectural history at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and the Academic Curatorium which advises…

It has been just over a decade since the first students graduated with Leiden University’s unique Liberal Arts and Sciences Bachelor degree. We caught up with one of those pioneering graduates.

It was more than twenty years ago that the plan for a Japanese-Dutch dictionary was born. Now it contains over 65,000 words, and completion is tentatively coming into view. Dictionary makers Oscar Veltink and Hetty Geerdink-Verkoren talk about their enthusiasm for this decades-long mammoth task.

After ten years and one day, Leiden Observatory has a new director. As of 1 September, Ignas Snellen will set the course for the astronomical institute. In this interview, you will get to know Ignas. Or at least a little. That is why we gave him five dilemmas and asked the people around him who he really…

‘Islam and Muslims are not something that happened to Europe; they are part of Europe. In fact, Islam is one the biggest constants in European history,’ argues Professor Maurits Berger in the new eight-part History of Islam in Europe podcast series of the Leiden University Faculty of Humanities.

The thermostat in Leiden University’s buildings will be turned down by two degrees. The temperature will also be adjusted in rooms that are cooled. This is the University’s response to the government’s call to use less energy.