Sunshine, ice cream, coffee, and plenty of good vibes. Once again, students and staff made the most of the We are Science Week. Relive some of the highlights with our photo report!

A small cat with a big personality has captured the hearts of students and staff at the Faculty of Science. The black-and-white Bobby even has his own Instagram fan account. Who are the people behind Bobby ‘the astrocat’? ‘He helps connecting people on campus.’

Before the summer holidays, the elections for new staff members in the Science Faculty Council have taken place (thank you for voting!). For the coming two years, the LACDR will be represented in the Faculty Council by Laura Heitman and Linda Holtman!

On December 10, Kazakh pianist and composer Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin will perform at the Stadsgehoorzaal in Leiden. A remarkable event where music and modern physics come together.

Lecture

Leiden University has taken eighth place in this year’s SustainaBul, the sustainability ranking for universities and universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. It was in 18th place last year.

Sustainable biotechnology, new insights into genome evolution and combining forces in mathematics. The NWO has awarded grants to these three innovative Leiden research projects in the ENW-M Open Competition.

Rawi Ramautar will be the new Programme Director of the bachelor of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences starting September 1. The appointment is for four years. Ramautar succeeds Erik Danen, who has held the position since 2019.

The Executive Board has reappointed Professor of Algebra and Number Theory Bart de Smit as vice-dean at the Faculty of Science. De Smit had already held this position since the beginning of 2019. His term has been extended by four years until the end of 2026.

Research

Leiden University is taking a major step forward in the energy transition with the expansion of the thermal energy storage (TES) in the Gorlaeus Building. This expansion is needed to be able to heat and cool all the new and renovated buildings on the Campus Square of the Faculty of Science sustainably.…

Organisation

The Leiden-Delft-Erasmus (LDE) alliance signed a collaboration agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology on 23 September.

Paul Wouters came to the Faculty of Science for a few months to help with organising day-to-day issues after the previous dean left. This has involved rather more than he expected. ‘I can now really understand why every faculty has its own dean.’

This practical guide is aimed at PhD candidates, Research Master Students, and early-career researchers from all academic disciplines. The instructions in the guide intend to inspire young researchers and to help them practice Open Science, by sharing all aspects of research as open possible.

More than 700 visitors got to know the Science Faculty during the Leiden Science Family Day. People of all ages could enjoy fascinating experiments, tours, interesting lectures, spectacular nitrogen shows and various workshops. It was an informative day with many (future) scientists, amazement and,…

3 October University has become something of a tradition: a bit of science among the Leidens Ontzet celebrations. During the new and improved edition, the WetenschapsWarenMarkt (Science Market), visitors spoke to researchers about the nitrogen problem, making organs and the city’s connections with A…

The Faculty of Science launched the new Academic Year on 21 September with a special We Are Science talk show. Dean Paul Wouters starred in his role as talk show host and received a wide variety of guests.

An impressive speech by Dean Jasper Knoester, a lecture by top researcher Mario van der Stelt about brain messengers, and the presentation of the faculty awards. 2025 begins on a hopeful and festive note, with a toast to a year of fruitful collaboration within and beyond the faculty.

If universities and research institutions want to tackle unacceptable behaviour in academia, they must shift their focus from dealing with complaints to preventing such behaviour in the first place. This is what the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has concluded. It has therefore…

Assistant Professor Briitta van Staalduinen has received the Best Dissertation Award from the American Political Science Association, Section on Class and Inequality. Her dissertation, Ethnic Inequality in the Welfare State, aims to reconcile the persistence of ethnic inequalities in expansive welfare…

Some children start life with a disadvantage. Sometimes even before they are born. A new research project involving Professor Wessel Kraaij of Leiden University investigates how data science can help give these children a good start in life.

After diving into the murder trial of nurse Lucia de Berk, statistician Richard Gill became a leading expert on the statistics of medical murder cases. Together with colleagues, he now wrote a peer reviewed report about the statistical missteps in past medical murder trials. It gives recommendations…

The Executive Board is visiting the university’s institutes to find out what is going on. On 8 July 2025, it was the turn of the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), one of the fastest-growing institutes at Leiden University. ‘Our main aim is to preserve our planet for future generations.’

Organisation, Social

A festive opening with plenty of orange, a well-attended lecture by Ionica Smeets and an unforgettable party for staff and students. We celebrated the opening of the new building together. Join us as we look back on this exciting week of celebrations.

Organisation

Lecture

Lecture

Educators in European science museums sometimes think rather differently about the definition of an 'authentic' object. They think carefully about how they present those objects to teach visitors something or make them curious. This was shown in research by the Science Communication & Society department.…

Arnold Tukker and Mingming Hu (CML) will look for urban resilience solutions in the Dutch-Chinese ReSURE2 project that received 1.1M euro.

ICT

Tracking mucus-eating bacteria, mapping the complexity of planetary nebulae and a signalling pathway in cancer. These three Leiden projects have been awarded Open Competition Science-M funding by the Dutch Research Council.

We want to be an engaged community where we feel heard and enjoy working together. But how do we have an open conversation about difficult topics?

Organisation

Festival