Michaël Opgenhaffen is an assistant professor at the Centre for Linguistics.

Plants are extraordinary biochemists and produce a plethora of valuable specialized metabolites (i.e. natural products), including some of our most important medicines. In my lab we want to understand specialized metabolite biosynthesis on a molecular level to improve cultivated plant systems and advance…

Why do some groups of organisms evolve into many species, while evolution is much slower in other groups, places, or time periods? Why do some species go extinct, and why are some more resilient to major impacts or ecosystem changes? I study the ecology and evolution of flowering plants to answer these…

Kelly Ziemer teaches several courses in the Bachelors and Masters program and is affiliated with the Developmental and Educational Psychology department.

Plants not only sense when they are touched, but they can also adapt to it. For example, by strengthening or defending themselves. But how do plants do this? The Green TE (Green Tissue Engineering) consortium has been granted a Gravitation grant of almost 23 million euros to investigate exactly this…

Through various initiatives, Leiden University is trying to make people aware of the importance of biodiversity: the cultivation of a wide variety of micro-organisms, animals and plant species. This is important because in the Netherlands biodiversity has declined from about 40 percent in 1900 to about…

The jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) is flowering at the Hortus botanicus in Leiden. The plant started producing multiple flower clusters three weeks ago and the first ones are now in full bloom.

National Meat Free Week (Nationale Week Zonder Vlees, 7–13 March) is an initiative to reduce meat consumption. Assistant professor Paul Behrens is studying what impact a change in our food consumption would have on the world. What, according to him, are the main reasons to switch to a (mainly) plant-based…

Facility, Organisation

As an ethnobotanist, I study traditional plant use. Together with several PhD students, postdoc fellows and MSc students, I am involved in a number of research projects.

I am a PhD candidate at the IBL in the group of Prof. Ákos T. Kovács, where I study how circadian clocks shape interactions between the beneficial soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, using molecular biology and microscopy approaches.

Willem van Wijk is a PhD-candidate and lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University.

Miguel Mira is an external PhD candidate at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. His research investigates the intersection of cinema and virtual reality with a focus on narratology.

Fitri Murfianti is a PhD Candidate at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University.

Do you also love a city where nature can bloom, crawl and flutter freely and exuberantly? And do you fancy a challenge out in the fresh air? If so, grab your mobile and take part in the BioBlitz 'Higher Education is Flourishing' from 22 May.

My group focuses on understanding the regulatory mechanisms by which plants integrate abiotic stress-derived signals into growth and developmental programs, and the molecular machinery that underlies stress memory in plants.

Paul Behrens and his team have won the Frontiers Planet Prize of half a million euros for their research into the effects of switching to a plant-based diet.

My main research subjects are urban flora and citizen science. I am working on a citizen science project where we map out where and what different pavement plants grow in cities and towns, together with citizens. Additionally, we want to see if participants will develop more attention for urban flor…

Surya Suryadi is a Lecturer at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies.

Dr Csilla Ariese is temporarily filling in for Dr Mariana Françoco as leader of the ERC Starting Grant BRASILIAE. Indigenous Knowledge in the Making of Science: Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648).

Maurijn van der Zee searches for insecticides that protect crops without harming wildlife or leaving residues in our food. His GREENSHIELD project received funding from the NWO Open Technology Programme.

Yinzhi Zhang is a Lecturer at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies.

Scientists have detected a neutrino with the highest energy ever measured. Leiden physicists Maarten de Jong and Dorothea Samtleben were involved in this project, which was widely covered in newspapers and online media last week.

Arthur started as a PhD candidate at the department of Industrial Ecology in February 2026 and works on the REAP2SOW project, focusing on the sustainability of novel food crops.

Bart Barendregt is a Professor of Anthropology of Digital Diversity at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology of Leiden University. He is the Principal Investigator of the NWO-VICI project One Among Zeroes |0100|.

Wouter Hins is since July 2007 connected to eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies.

Nurul Huda Rashid is a postdoctoral researcher with the Project One Among Zeroes |0100|: Towards an Anthropology of Everyday AI in Islam, at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (CADS) at Leiden University.

As of 1 May 2019, McGonagle holds the chair in Media Law & Information Society. The chair is financed by the A.W. Hins Fund, administered by the Leiden University Fund. Tarlach specializes in a range of issues relating to media law and the information society: freedom of expression; the interface between…

2,240 plant extracts from 1,299 different plant species of Dutch origin. That’s the collection of the Dutch Extract Library, which has recently been transferred to the Institute of Biology Leiden. To plant biologist and contact person for this library Pingtao Ding this is a true treasury. ‘To bring…

As a researcher, it can be fun and useful to talk to the media about your work. But on what terms should you agree to do an interview or appear on a talk show? And how do you tell an engaging story? The Media Guide for Researchers is here to help. Three colleagues share their top tips.