From forwarding promising calls and arranging budgets to assisting in legal issues and keeping track of important deadlines: to associate professor Roxanne Kieltyka, the research support offered by project managers Inge Rietveld en Christina Schlüpen is fundamental. ‘The combination of our expertise…

How do our researchers and support professionals work together to ensure that groundbreaking innovations from the lab are given a place in society? Professor Huub de Groot and business developer Serkan Esiner share their experiences on collaborating within an EU-funded project that focuses on converting…

A job thanks to COVID—something not many people can claim. But PhD candidate Vera Arntzen can. Over the past four years, she has mapped two crucial characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Thanks to her research, experts can now make well-informed decisions on matters like quarantine duration, which…

After nearly five years as President of the Executive Board, Annetje Ottow will be stepping down from the role as of 1 September. During her time as President, she helped shape the university’s strategic direction, strengthening its regional, European and international profile. Sustainability, and dignity…

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Infecting each other with viruses and bacteria while protecting yourself with medicines and vaccinations. Sounds like a fun evening, right? Master students Life Science & Technology Rafael Jezior and Dennis de Beeld certainly think so. Together, they developed ImmunoWars: an exciting card game based…

Protostars, data science, and the James Webb Space Telescope—Adriaan Janssen’s curiosity knows no bounds. As a double bachelor’s student in Physics and Astronomy, he has truly found his calling, underscored by his nomination for the title of Leiden Science Young Talent 2024.

Researchers have discovered the most distant Milky-Way-like galaxy yet observed. Dubbed REBELS-25, this disc galaxy seems as orderly as present-day galaxies, but we see it as it was when the Universe was only 700 million years old. This is surprising since, according to our current understanding of…

As early as 2030, batteries in electric vehicles could fully meet the need for short-term electricity storage around the world. By connecting them to the power grid they can provide their stored energy, improving energy security and enabling renewable technologies in cleaning the grid.

A place where people enjoy working and studying—that’s at the core of the strategic plan of our faculty, and a lot of effort is being put into achieving this goal. Elice Schöne, Head of HR, is involved in the Leadership, Recognition and Rewards programme. What does it entail, and how does it affect…

‘No two days are ever the same – and that’s what makes it fun.’ But what does a head of the education office actually do? Marije Boonstra shares the many sides of her role: from drawing up timetables to launching innovative education projects, from tailoring programmes to students’ needs to international…

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…

Steel production is likely to take up a large portion of our future carbon budget. Capturing CO₂ from coal-based production won’t solve the problem. Technologies that rely on renewables are more effective, but not enough to get to net zero.

From once controversial scientific works and historical bibles, to personal shopping lists and clothing bills. The 17th-century Bibliotheca Thysiana and the archive of the collector Johannes Thysius exhibit both the intellectual and everyday life as it was three hundred years ago. Now a brand-new digital…

Minerva, which calls itself the oldest student association of the Netherlands, has the reputation of being an impenetrable bastion. A lustrum exhibition shows the turbulent history and points to a diversity of contacts: from close bonds with Leiden ‘coffee ladies’ to the visit of Sir Winston Churchi…

He started out as a temporary staff member at the CML’s education office, and now – eight years later – Jasper Williams is the institute’s new Director of Operations. In this interview, he talks about entrepreneurship, making a social impact, and playing competitive bridge. ‘I like doing things properly,…

Almost everywhere in the world where the post exists, the beadle is a ‘master of ceremonies’ who only makes his appearance on special occasions. In Leiden the beadle does much more. He is indispensable at dissertation defences and orations. He directs ceremonies and is a master at calming nerves.

Few people would associate the name Anton de Kom with Leiden. Yet the Surinamese freedom fighter is the subject of an exhibition at Museum De Lakenhal.

The Advanced Nano-electrochemistry Institute Of the Netherlands (ANION) consortium will receive 23.6m euros in Gravitation funding for research on important electrochemical processes for energy transition. An additional four consortia with members from Leiden have also been awarded funding.

Over 30 ambassadors strengthened their ties with researchers and university leaders in a recent visit to Leiden University. Cross-border collaboration (both literal and figurative) was the theme of presentations and a tour of the Hortus botanicus.

He had been emeritus for 13 years when he suddenly received an email from Poland. Professor of Inorganic Chemistry Jan Reedijk was awarded an honorary doctorate from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. During the celebration of the 550th anniversary of the birth of patron Nicolaus Copernicus,…

Alumni and researchers met at two well-attended alumni dinners in Yogyakarta and Jakarta. The alumni reminisced about their time in Leiden and got to see their lecturers once again.

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…

50 years ago Lauterbur published the basic principle of MRI. Sine then MRI has become more expensive. Professor Andrew Webb describes what is needed to make MRI available for everybody.

Museum Boerhaave commemorated the hundredth anniversary of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity with the exhibition ‘Einstein & Friends’. The exhibition shined light on the famous physicist’s Dutch friends and his love for Leiden. A review featuring seven images can be found below.

Three Dutch-Belgian telescopes have started operating at the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile. This so-called BlackGEM array will scan the southern sky to hunt for cosmic events that produce gravitational waves, such as mergers of neutron stars and black holes. Leiden astronomer Rudolf le Poole is…

This year, in a three-part symposium series, we are exploring how interdisciplinary collaboration can be promoted at the university. In the second session in March, the attendees discovered that understanding your rhythm and perspective is essential when embarking on an interdisciplinary project.

Fifteen passionate lecturers earned their Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO) on Monday 22 January. Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl congratulated them in the Academy Building. Four of these lecturers talk about what motivated them to take the SKO and how it has benefitted them.

Antibiotic resistance is a common problem among patients. The European Project TIPAT trains pharmacologists, microbiologists and immunologists of six universities in interdisciplinary thinking. The ultimate goal is to develop better treatment guidelines to combat resistance. Coen van Hasselt of the…

Environmental scientist Rutger Hoekstra addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations on 12 April. And that’s quite a big thing to do. How do you get there as a scientist? And, more importantly, what was his message? In eight questions, Rutger explains what he does and why.

Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life.

Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life. This time, Jasper writes his column from Singapore.

How should we address our colonial heritage? And how digital and accessible are our collections? Outgoing State Secretary Fleur Gräper spoke with researchers and heritage specialists about this on 25 January.

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Thomas Moerland studied medicine and mathematics in Leiden and has a lifelong fascination with the origins and workings of intelligence. He brought all that together in his popular science book Van IQ naar AI (From IQ to AI).

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