Leiden physicists have managed to detect a single molecule called dibenzoterrylene in a new crystal, and found that it is a candidate component for a quantum network. Future quantum computers will need such a network to work together while maintaining their advantages. Publication in ChemPhysChem jo…

International experts from several academic disciplines came to Leiden on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 December 2017 to participate in the international conference 'The

Leiden biophysicists have found a new possible way to attack cancer cells. They have located ‘sinkholes’ on the cells where receptor proteins disappear from the surface. If a drug could push these proteins towards those areas, it would kill the cancer cell.

People who have taken antibiotics in the past three months pay more attention to negative facial expressions, according to research by postdoc Katerina Johnson and assistant professor Laura Steenbergen. This may explain how antibiotics increase the risk of developing depression.

In his lectures Aris Politopoulos combines archaeology with video games. He is one of the three nominees for the 2020 LUS Teaching Prize. 'A good teacher is always open to feedback from students.'

There are many links between Leiden and the US. The highest office there has been held an impressive nine times by presidents with Leiden roots. This has led to memorable visits to Leiden University.

Following China and Italy, it appears that the United States is becoming the next epicentre of the coronacrisis. Can the US handle this crisis? Is president Trump dealing with the situation correctly? We asked Leiden America expert Sara Polak.

Professor of Higher Education Estela Mara Bensimon approaches diversity from a specific viewpoint. Examine and reflect on your own motives, is her advice to lecturers. Do you know for sure that you don't treat students from minority groups differently?

If European countries rely solely on technological advances, they won't be able to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees. Households will also need to change their lifestyles. This 'inconvenient truth' is the result of calculations done by industrial ecologist Stephanie Cap. ‘It's not a popular message,…

The conference 'The

CADS lecturer Sander Hölsgens is one of the initiators of the NWO Smart Culture Project Documenting Complexity (project number CISC.KC.212). This project investigates how and why engaged documentary filmmakers use new technologies in their work. One of the outputs of this project is the series ‘In Whose…

Using biologically inspired algorithms on 'edge devices', such as cameras and mobile phones, is what Svetlana Minakova's PhD research was all about. She conducted research on Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN). Making these algorithms work in different situations is a complicated task. 'Most design…

With a wall full of people who preceded them as a backdrop, the (bachelor) Science graduates will receive their diplomas this autumn. Send in your photo and help the Faculty of Science create a great experience for the new graduates in this time of 1.5m distancing.

Researchers at Leiden University have demonstrated that tumours can apply mechanical means to attract the blood vessels they need to be able to grow. The team published this discovery on 2 March in Nature Scientific Reports.

A new bill is currently under debate in the Netherlands, advocating raising the prison sentence for manslaughter from 15 to 25 years. ‘This very serious crime (...) evokes feelings of disgust and insecurity in society’, Dutch Minister for Justice and Security Grapperhaus comments on the sentence that…

Leiden alumnus Luc Amkreutz is a curator at the National Museum of Antiquities. His exhibition about the submerged landscape of Doggerland highlights what we can learn from prehistory. ‘Just like the people of Doggerland, we are confronted with climate change, but we are responsible for the speed of…

From a catastrophic fire to a flood that engulfs the earth. Mineke Schipper, Professor Emeritus of Literary Studies, has collected myths from the four corners of the earth about the end of humanity. These have inspired 30 striking paintings by Japanese artist Yuriko Yamaguchi. The Dutch premiere of…

To limit the effects of climate change, global average temperature since pre-industrial measurements are to be kept well below 2 °C preferably even at 1.5 °C.

The Janssen-Cilag International N.V COVID-19 vaccine has received authorization for emergency use by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on March 11. The vaccine was developed with fundamental support from the Molecular Virology group of the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC).

How might we include circularity into the models often used in IPCC reporting (in technical language, how can IAMs, dMFA models and CGE models be integrated?) What are possible futures for global resource use and what are the consequences for greenhouse gas emissions in these scenarios?

Leiden University is an internationally oriented Dutch university, where we communicate with one another in both Dutch and English. To ensure that we handle this bilingual convention with due care, the Executive Board has established a set of guidelines on language policy. These guidelines set out the…

Former dean and physicist Frans Saris writes in his new book ‘Darwin’s combination lock’ how our culture enabled us to dominate nature and about the corresponding responsibilities. Together with Joris Berkhout he will talk about his book during the This Week’s Discoveries on 27 February.

Modified viruses can both kill cancer cells and activate the immune system. This is what an LUMC team discovered while researching a new prostate cancer therapy.

Turbulent times in Italy: Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini wants new elections so that he can become prime minister himself. He is campaigning on social media, including photos of himself posing in his swimming trunks.

Food waste is a defining inefficiency of the modern food system, with profound implications for resource use, climate change, and circular economy transitions. This dissertation examines food waste through two complementary lenses: the prevention of avoidable food waste and the valorization of unavoidable…

New technological applications which the government wants to use need to be thoroughly examined to prevent them causing problems for citizens. Currently, things often go wrong – the childcare benefit affair being an extreme example – says Anne Meuwese, Professor of Public Law and Governance of AI, in…

Promotor: Prof.dr. R. Verpoorte, , Co-Promotor: Young Hae Choi

On May 23rd, Ernanda succesfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Ernanda on this great result.

How can you learn about women’s history if they are under-represented in historical sources? Look at news coverage of crime, says Clare Wilkinson, PhD candidate in gender and history. ‘Historical crime reporting offers a glimpse into forgotten groups.’ The doctoral defence will take place on 23 Apri…

Seven talented female scientists join the fight against cancer of the Oncode Insitute. Laura Heitman of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research is one of the new Junior Investigators. ‘I hope to discover new druggable targets’.

What is the significance of the history of slavery for our present-day society? A special exhibition in the inner courtyard of the Academy Building features eleven insightful portraits of students and staff, and their answer to this question. The aim of the exhibition’s initiators is to make the subject…

Migration is not only reflected in DNA, but also in language. By tracing changes in language, we learn more about the lifestyle of the people that speak it. University lecturer Tijmen Pronk (40) conducts linguistic research into (pre)historical migration.

On Sunday 28 October, the annual open day of the Old Observatory in Leiden takes place. During this day everyone can visit the Old Observatory for free and enjoy activities in this historic building.

Where exactly on the surface of a catalyst do the chemical reactions occur? Until now, it has always been a challenge to identify the exact locations of these ‘active sites’. In a new article in Nature, Leiden chemists helped their international colleagues reveal new insights into this issue. Their…

John van den Dobbelsteen’s work is all about using medical technology to reduce the workload and increase the job satisfaction of healthcare staff.

We need to dispel the arrogant and misguided idea that modern humans are superior to earlier human species. It is thanks in part to all our predecessors such as Neanderthals that we are who we are today. This is what Marie Soressi, Professor of Hominin Diversity Archaeology, will argue in her inaugural…

Rosan Kuin started her PhD in July at the LACDR under supervision of prof. Gerard van Westen and Dr. Meindert Lamers. She completed a BSc. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the VU University in Amsterdam in 2017. After that she started two master programs, Drug Discovery & Safety with a specialization in…

Over the years, many spectacular archaeological finds have been washed ashore on the Dutch coast. Among these a large assemblage of barbed points made of bone and antler from the Mesolithic (11,000-8000 BC). The species used by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to manufacture their barbed points remained…

Researcher and lecturer Susana Valdez investigates how migrants make use of online translation technology in medical situations. Her research suggests that they often encounter obstacles when using machine translation in these settings. Potential problems include a lack of understanding or trust.

Can wear traces or amount of abrasion preserved on archaeological threshold and paving stones be used to reconstruct the intensity, duration, and character of ancient pedestrian and vehicular traffic?

The use of virtual girl Sweetie, used by the police to investigate pedofiles, is problematic in the Netherlands. Researchers of Leiden University and Tilburg University conclude that this is due to the criminal law applicable at the moment.

A team of surgeons at Leiden University Medical Center and the Centre for Human Drug Research have removed a lung tumour that they pinpointed using fluorescence. This is the first time that this technique has been used in Europe in a patient with a lung tumour.

The last blog of Leiden Law Blog of 2018 was written by Ladislav Kováč. He discusses the proposal for the Single-use Plastics Directive of the EU which was agreed upon on 19 December.

What are the capabilities or limitations of traveling between islands and how does this reflect seasonal variation? Is it possible to show higher levels of connectivity between islands based on generated pathways between several sites on two separate islands?

Leiden heritage expert Sjoerd van der Linde is carrying out research on the heritage of the Caribbean region. This research forms part of the international Nexus 1492 project on the consequences of colonisation for the Americas. ‘We first have to find out what the local population wants.'

Friso Selten recently started a PhD position that is part of the SAILS program. This PhD project is a collaboration between FGGA, LIACS, and eLaw, and is supervised by Bram Klievink (FGGA), Joost Broekens (LIACS), and Francien Deschene (eLaw). In the project Friso will investigate the influence of artificial…

Is scientific research useful? In his dissertation, Jorrit Smit argues that in order to answer this question one should not look at, for example, prominent scholars or influential organisations, but at places where knowledge exchange and co-creation take place. Promotion 6 May.

PhD defence

For the Dutch Safety Board (DSB), the investigation into the MH17 plane crash was unprecedented in scope. It wasn’t easy, but it provided valuable lessons for international disaster investigations, says Sanneke Kuipers, a crisis expert from the Institute of Security and Global Affairs.

When new features are being written into software code, errors can easily be made. This causes bugs, which leads to software appearing later and being more expensive. Michiel Helvensteijn, a PhD student from CWI and the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, studied how to prevent these kinds…