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.

Jaïr van Rhenen studied Medicine in Leiden and is now a GP in the largely religious Veenendaal. Before this, he worked as a tropical medicine doctor in Lesotho. ‘If you have the prospect of an afterlife, you often respond differently to illness.’

Carmen Gonsalves has been the Dutch ambassador to Chile since this autumn. She studied history in Leiden. How useful has her degree been and what’s it like to be an ambassador? ‘Diplomacy is fascinating.’ We spoke to her just before the presidential elections.

To read Chekhov in the ‘original’. That was what motivated Arie van der Ent to study Slavic languages and literature with Karel van het Reve at Leiden University. ‘My love for Chekhov hasn’t faded,’ says Van der Ent from his home 60 kilometres south of Kyiv. ‘But it has for the rest of Russia.’

Marleen Hogendoorn (36) studied Dutch Language and Culture at Leiden University and is now editor-in-chief of the feminist monthly OPZIJ.

Alumnus Anoma van der Veere did Japanese studies and talks in this interview about his studies in Leiden and his work as a researcher at the Leiden Asia Centre and as Japanese correspondent in Tokyo.

Her plan was to obtain a PhD, but, during her master’s, alumnus Sangbreeta Moitra discovered that her true interest lay in applying neuroscience in everyday life.

Alumnus Rennie Roos lives and works in Indonesia. What took him there, what does he do there and what inspires him?