The chance that it will do so is about zero, but Russia is legally obliged to investigate violations of law during the war in Ukraine. States that enter into an armed conflict often deny liability, but under international humanitarian law and human rights they are obliged to investigate their military…

Randal Sheppard recently joined the Institute for History as a lecturer in International Relations. He introduces himself.

Life returned to something resembling normal after Covid but other crises soon took its place. These great challenges are also being felt at the University and our researchers are working on solutions. The nitrogen crisis, problems with young people’s services and an increasingly urgent climate crisis:…

Het strategisch plan van de faculteit wiskunde en natuurwetenschappen (FWN) werd gepresenteerd tijdens de opening van het academisch jaar 2023-2024.

A European bachelor’s degree, an enormous web of collaborations and masses of fantastic opportunities for researchers and support professionals: in two years, we as a university have come far within the Una Europa alliance, says Professor Joanne van der Leun. She rejoined the Una Europa Board of Directors…

Biologist Nataliia Machushynets felt like she was ‘looking for a needle in a haystack’, trying to find new antibiotics to help solve the problem of resistance. During her PhD research, she did find what she was looking for, in the soil beneath our feet.

Why and how do people collect things? Why does a museum display one object and not another? These questions are at the heart of the interdisciplinary research programme Museums, Collections and Society. The programme is holding a conference for scholars and the general public on 5 and 6 July.

On the initiative of Leiden Law School’s Art Committee, the festive opening of the photo exhibition of the Leiden Amateur Photographic Society (LAFV) took place on Friday 20 May 2022 in the C corridor of the Kamerlingh Onnes Building.

During the kick-off meeting, master students taking part in the Thesis Workshop The Hague Southwest presented their thesis ideas to stakeholders from the neighbourhood.

Met haar spannende onderzoek naar strafrechtelijke waarheidsvinding in Europa sleept Linda Geven dit jaar de Gratama Wetenschapsprijs voor jonge talentvolle wetenschappers in de wacht.

Ayo Adedokun, Assistant Professor at Leiden University College The Hague (LUC), was one of the four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year Prize for 2022. The National Prize is an annual event organized by the Dutch National Students Association (Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg, ISO), and the…

It may seem as though adolescents do as they please, but they are more sensitive to their parents’ opinions than they would appear. The adolescent brain reacts strongly to parental criticism or praise. These are the results of a study by an interdisciplinary research group of psychologists and neuroscientists…

It is one of the most famous moments in Dutch TV history: the twenty-three hour long marathon broadcast of Open het Dorp. But what happened to the commune for people with disabilities after that? Monika Baár and Paul van Trigt received a NWO grant of 750,000 euros to map the development of Het Dorp.

Antoaneta Dimitrova, Professor Comparative Governance, presented the Cleveringa Lecture at the Vaclav Havel Library in Prague last week. We spoke to her about her experience.

Neuroscientist Anne Urai has been awarded a Veni subsidy to further develop her ideas over the coming four years on how the brain makes choices. Why did she receive the award? Urai answers five questions about her Veni grant for young researchers.

2024 was an eventful year for the Faculty of Humanities. Despite becoming the centre of political discussion and budget cuts as faculty ourselves, exceptional research projects were carried out and new initiatives were launched.

Last year, Dr. Henk van Steenbergen received a Grass Shoot grant to completely redevelop the research master's course 'Experimentation I: Programming Psychological Experiments'. The revised course was taught for first time last block and has just come to an end. Time for a brief recap.

The antibiotic EVG7, developed in Leiden, has proven capable of fighting the dangerous gut bacterium C. difficile with only a minimal dose. What’s more, the bacterium is far less likely to return, a major issue with existing antibiotics. The research was published in Nature Communications.

The winner of the Africa Thesis Award 2023 is Rachel Dubale, a graduate from the Research Master in African Studies at Leiden University, with her thesis “They think we can eat the condominium”. Chronicles of Economic, Social and Political Practices in Addis Ababa’s Condominiums.

Two Cleveringa books from Theo ten Kate's law library were donated to Leiden University by grandson Sebastiaan ten Kate on 24 November. They are the dissertations of W. Hugenholtz and J.G.L Röder, both PhD students of Rudolph Cleveringa. Ten Kate: 'The University is the right place for the books. Here,…

eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, participated in the Horizon Europe BIAS Project international co-creational workshop geared towards discussing fairness of AI applications in the hiring process and ALTAI requirements.

The successful PRINS (PRactising INternational Studies) project offers International Studies students an introduction to the world of practice. In the last semester of their bachelor’s programme, they work as consultants for real-life clients, ranging from Rabobank to Greenpeace. We took a look at the…

On 11 January 2026, our esteemed and much-loved former colleague, Prof. Dr Marc Spijker, passed away.

Timo McGregor recently joined the Institute for History as a NWO-Veni research fellow. His research explores legal and political thought in early modern European empires, with a particular focus on mobility, political belonging, and enslavement. Below he introduces himself.

If you have a plan that could improve the education or the learning environment of the Faculty of Humanities in terms of diversity or inclusion, you can apply for a grant from the faculty’s JEDI Fund. This year, Nasreen has been helping to develop a new syllabus for the first-year Ancient History co…

The AI chatbot ChatGPT has a clear left-liberal bias when filling in the Stemwijzer voting advice application. This was discovered by master's student Merel van den Broek during an assignment for the Machine Learning for Natural Language Processing course.

Ontdek hoe informele gesprekken en lichaamstaal beleid beïnvloeden. Universitair docent Lianne Visser onderzoekt informele besluitvorming wereldwijd.

Open, extravert, agreeable, stress-tolerant and conscientious. These are the character traits of surgeons according to research by the LUMC.

During the ‘Hour of Remembrance’ on 4 May, the University community remembers its students and staff who were killed in the Second World War. It also looks at freedom and oppression today. Three questions for Sara Polak, chair of the Hour of Remembrance committee.

With the six pieces of the puzzle now assembled by the partners of the University Campus and the Mayor of The Hague, Jan van Zanen, the building at the Spui was officially opened last Thursday.

How do you find your was as an early career researcher in the academic pressure cooker?

Leiden University's Kiem grant is designed to give new interdisciplinary ideas from staff a boost. Thanks to the grant, Jelle Brands and Nathan Saucier were able to test the research possibilities of a hyper-realistic 3D environment. With promising results.

The Executive Board has decided to extend the terms of office of interim dean Henk te Velde and interim vice-dean Jos Schaeken by one year, to 1 March 2028. Both board members were originally appointed for a period of two years, to 1 March 2027.

What unfolded in shared kitchens, along narrow corridors and around Wednesday coffee tables became more than an assignment. It became a living exploration of what ageing means in practice.

A world-famous light experiment from 1801 has now been carried out with sound for the first time. Research by physicists in Leiden has produced new insights that could be applied in 5G devices and the emerging field of quantum acoustics.

Of course, Jan Melissen is proud of the publication of his new book. Even so, one painful memory lingers: because of American interference, he was forced to remove the chapter on citizen diplomacy, diversity and inclusion. ‘It did affect me.’

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has elected 16 new members, including two academics from Leiden: internist-infectiologist Meta Roestenberg and Arabist Petra Sijpesteijn.

Lecturer and PhD candidate Aholi So is one of the KNAW’s new Faces of Science. By offering a glimpse into his life as a young scientist, he hopes to inspire young people and encourage their enthusiasm for science.

The results of the 2026 University elections are in. Who will represent us on the participation organs?

In the academic year 2022-2023 the Social Resilience and Security interdisciplinary programme will offer a new minor for students who are interested in studying interpersonal violence and who are entering the third year of their Bachelor's degree. The announcement went down well with students: the available…

It was great to welcome so many people at the LACDR Spring symposium on the 4th of April 2023. The meeting started with an inspiring lecture of Dr. Mustafa Diken (Bioentech) on the evolution of mRNA vaccines. Afterwards, PhD speakers from LACDR, LIC and CHDR gave presentations on a wide range of pharma-related…

On 8 March 2021, International Women’s Day, Vanessa Newby was a panelist at the online discussion ‘Breaking Barriers – Women in Peacekeeping’, organized by A4P WPS Champions Ireland, Germany, South Africa and Bangladesh together with UNSCR 1325 architect, Namibia.

Shell Nigeria is liable for damages from oil spills in Nigeria. The Hague Court of Appeals gave this ruling in a case that was brought by four Nigerian farmers.

Facility

A report by interest group Tax Justice Network shows that the Netherlands is still one of the most attractive countries for companies when it comes to tax: we hold a dubious fourth position on a list of seventy coutries. In Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland Jan Vleggeert, Professor of Tax Law, explains…

Organisation

In 2011, the University of Hussein Bin Talal in Maan and Leiden University initiated the joint Udhruh Archaeological Project, led by Professors Fawzi Abudanah and Mark Driessen.

LACDR is committed to preparing its PhD candidates and postdocs for their future in the best possible way. One of the activities for this is the annual PhD-Postdoc event focused on career prospects. This year’s event was held on March 4th, 2025.

During the LACDR Fall Symposium the Suzanne Hovinga Award for ‘best master thesis’ was awarded to Carlijn Lems for her master thesis entitled ‘Elucidating the crosstalk between epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and Programmed Death-Ligand 1: validation and extension of a computational model’. Carlijn…

It has been a coming and going of satellites and spaceships near the moon. It has not been this busy in years. There are currently more than ten moon missions in progress and another five are being scheduled for next year.