More CO2 in the atmosphere is making food crops more calorific, less nutritious and potentially more toxic.

Everything biobased: Plastic, medicine and fuel. It seems like a futuristic utopia. But for how long? A collaboration of researchers now proposes an idea to accelerate the development process. By combining machine learning and laboratory automation, this biobased ideal may become a reality rather sooner…

On 2 April, the final of the Legal Tech Challenge 2026 took place in the Academy Building of Leiden University. During the final, teams of students pitched their technological solutions to societal challenges.

A more inclusive and diverse society is what Talisha Schilder, Hawra Nissi and Chiraz Hassoumi spend many hours a week working towards. Their hard work led them to being nominated for the ECHO Award.

Nanotechnology has pervaded numerous industrial sectors over the past decades. Although many of us may not be aware of it, nanomaterials are now embedded within many of the the products we use in our daily lives. The agricultural sector might be next in line. Leiden environmental scientists Tom Nederstigt…

Nathaniel Martin, Professor of Biological chemistry, wondered what would happen if you take an antibiotic that has been known for 70 years and try to improve it with the latest tools of modern chemistry. Turns out it can become up to a hundred times more potent and prevent the growth of some drug-resistant…

Sharing his passion for sustainability with students—that’s what Thijs Bosker enjoys most about his work. As an environmental scientist, he conducts ecotoxicological research, but next to this he loves teaching. ‘Everyone can make a difference in their own way.’

Chris Suijker, since 1 July the new director of Real Estate, likes healthy and sustainable university buildings where you ‘get the feeling you’re right at the heart of society’. Her aim is to achieve the same effect with even more buildings.

For more than twenty years, Johan Visser has served as a family and juvenile court judge in The Hague where he is also a board member. Once a student at Leiden Law School, he reflects here on his student days and career.

Software development is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a sociologist. Three years ago, John Boy began developing his software package Textnets. Because of Corona, he was less able to concentrate on writing scientific research and also setting up the online courses…

Assignments, work groups, deadlines and the first exams in sight! The Get Started campaign of Leiden University Libraries aims to help new students to find their way in the library. We can use the help of teachers for this campaign.

LUNHA strives to redefine global health by prioritizing justice, fairness, and inclusion in Africa. Through collaboration with diverse stakeholders, LUNHA aims to reshape global health research and foster a broader engagement with social sciences and humanities.

Als nieuwe hoogleraar Ontwikkelingspsychologie pleit Anna van Duijvenvoorde voor meer samenwerking in de wetenschap. Daarom moedigt ze jonge onderzoekers zich aan te melden bij een netwerk. ‘Het biedt je een bredere blik op de wetenschappelijke wereld.’

69% of young Dutch people are struggling financially. They’re more likely to take risks by gambling, investing in cryptocurrencies or paying on credit. Like most Dutch people, the young are turning to family and friends for help and advice, rather than experts.

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

On 15-16 June, Jos Gommans, Marieke Bloembergen, and Carolien Stolte will organize an international conference entitled “India in the Making of the Global Esoteric: 1200-2000”. The conference asks: why is it always India that has been imagined as a wonder, and what did that wonder mean, intellectually…

She works four days a week as a project manager at LIACS and trains six days a week with the Dutch Para Climbing team. Christiane Luttikhuizen balances her role at the Faculty of Science with competing at a high level in climbing.

Who doesn't love to turn on a horror film on a rainy evening? Fortunately, it is only fiction - or is it? According to university lecturer Evert Jan van Leeuwen, modern horror says more about our society than we think. He has been nominated for the Klokhuis Science Prize for his research into addiction…

With lab tours, presentations and an information fair, Leiden University’s Master’s Open Day gave students a good impression of our master’s programmes and the career prospects that come with them.

No full-time job, but full-time voluntary work instead. That’s what Aniek Moonen decided on graduating from Leiden University College The Hague, when she started work as a committee member of the Young Climate Movement (Jonge Klimaatbeweging). As its Chair, she joins CEOs and government ministers in…

Laura Kamsma (31) has been coordinating the International Office (IO) of FGGA for a few months now. An introduction to the ambitious Nijmegen native, who has set herself the goal of making the International Office more visible: 'Knock on our door if you have an internationalisation issue. Now you can…

They are talented, independent and fit right into your team: LDE trainees. Every year, their knowledge and skills strengthen various university departments. We’re looking for new assignments for the upcoming academic year. So why not submit one, say current assignment provider Monique and trainee Ea…

Leiden students are producing ‘College Tour, the podcast!’ with TV presenter Twan Huys. In next to no time, they have to find top journalists and prepare hard-hitting interviews. We take a look behind the scenes.

The university elections are approaching. Are you going to represent student and staff interests this coming year? University Council chair Pauline Vincenten gives a peek behind the scenes at student and staff participation at Leiden University. ‘I get so much energy from collaborating with the students…

On Thursday 9 December, Dr Upik Djalins presented an online lecture, entitled 'The Colonial Bureaucratic Network versus the Metropole: The Origin Story of Land Alienation Prohibition in the 1870s East Indies'.

I recently went to the anniversary celebration of The Meeting Point, and the stories the refugee students told made a huge impression on me. The Meeting Point helps students from different backgrounds feel part of our university community.

Leiden University is currently working on the new Gorlaeus Building, a sustainable modern building for the Faculty of Science. To make room for the phase 2A construction work, a plane tree of over 20 metres in height was moved on 17 December. The tree has been conserved. Its new home will be on the…

There was a time when student Lelani Antar wanted to go to film school. She ended up studying International Studies, yet she didn’t quite say goodbye to film. For her minor, she and three other students made an essay film.

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.

A course that concludes with a video pitch, instead of a paper or examination: Italian Language and Culture students each recorded their own knowledge clip, speaking to a wide audience about Italian cultural expressions. We asked Goran Bouaziz, Cameron-May Bosch and Katja Timmer what they thought of…

A healthy and happy society. This is what researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences are working towards, together with a selection of partners from different disciplines and regions. To further structure research about Health and Well-being, the faculty has identified three focus area’s. Researchers…

Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl received an honorary degree from the University of Birmingham on Friday 12 December for her contribution to educational innovation, student well-being and culture change within academia.

Alexander van Oudenhoven has been appointed as the new Director of Education of the Governance of Sustainability master's programme. Van Oudenhoven has been appointed for a four-year period, from 1 October 2022 to 1 October 2026. The programme is taught in The Hague.

Psychologist Ellen de Bruijn is investigating what hormonal fluctuations do to women's behaviour and well-being. The National science funding body NWO honoured her research with a Vici grant; earlier this year she received an ERC Consolidator Grant. Read the interview with De Bruijn about her resear…

Atte Ahola, who graduated last year from the bachelor’s programme in Urban Studies, has won the award for Best Undergraduate Thesis in Europe in the category of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Global Undergraduate Awards 2025.

Despite an eventful afternoon – with Students for Palestine occupying the Academy Building – political scientist Hélène Landemore gave her Cleveringa Lecture as planned on 26 November. She reflected on the protest and the importance of open debate, within the university and within a democracy.

Each research institute has its own dynamic. The Executive Board is visiting our institutes to find out what they are up to. On 24 June, it was the turn of the Institute for History. ‘History helps us make sense the present, whether through family stories, local issues or world politics.’

Diversity and inclusion within the police creates opportunities but also meets resistance. Professor by special appointment and former police officer, Saniye Çelik, emphasises how ambivalent feelings about D&I are essential to the learning process and can lead to informed decisions and real change.

Researchers need to work in specialized environments when they work with dangerous bacteria and viruses. These microbes spread easily, so only in labs with a high biosafety levels they can be studied. Unfortunately, to look at the microbes properly, expensive microscopes are needed that are not always…

Prof. Marcel Reinders is a data science specialist at Delft University of technology. Using smart algorithms, he searches for links in complex data. For example, he studies patterns in DNA that lead to aberrant cell behaviour. This knowledge will help detect serious diseases such as Alzheimer's and…

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…

What are the origins of the Islamic Empire? And what was daily life like there? Two new Ted Ed animations answer these questions in simple language. Arabists Petra Sijpesteijn and Birte Kristiansen explain what the process of developing the videos was like.

Willem van der Muur worked at the Van Vollenhoven Institute as a PhD candidate from 2013 to 2019. After completing his doctorate he left for Indonesia to work for the World Bank. There, he is leading a project to register land rights.

A breakthrough from the PhD research of medical chemist Elmer Maurits may help patients with autoimmune diseases and blood cancer in the future. But bringing a discovery from the lab to the clinic is not so easily done. Thanks to NWO's Venture Challenge, Maurits and his team will receive ten weeks of…

An Honours Class about the ostensibly unrecognisable worlds of insular Southeast Asia teaches students a fundamental piece of wisdom: "We do not differ much from the people at the other end of the world."

What if you could watch a single cell eat in real time? This could answer questions about diseases such as cancer. PhD candidate Yixuan Wang has developed a glowing chemical tool that makes this possible, revealing how living cells take in nutrients.

An independent review committee has unanimously selected three projects to receive a grant from the Prof. Andrea Evers Fund for Health, Behaviour and Society. The fund, which was launched earlier this year, supports innovative inter- and transdisciplinary research in health and well-being.