Nienke Beets of the Leiden Hortus botanicus has won the brand new Joke 't Hart Prize for connecting nature and art. For the botanical garden in Leiden, she developed a series of colourful plant icons and an educational board game. On 20 May, the Dutch Association of Botanical Gardens (NVBT) unanimously…

Music from a compostable cello, photographs and scents of fungi and a woven tapestry. With her upcoming multimedia project Super Organism, visual artist Suzette Bousema enables people to experience the underground fungal network with all their senses. Environmental scientist Nadia Soudzilovskaia and…

How have human-environmental entanglements changed in the Gulf of San Miguel, Darien, Panama, from the first traces human practices through to the present?

Leiden archaeologists investigate how people in the past impacted their environment. Together with scientists, environmental scientists, and humanities experts, they use this information to draw conclusions about the present – and show what we can learn from it for the future.

The main purpose of DNAmarkerpoint is to better understand the ecology, evolution and biodiversity through the study of ancient- and modern DNA.

Research truly comes to life when it contributes meaningfully to society. By sharing our findings, advising policymakers or contributing to community projects – we can make a real impact. Scroll down and discover how Science and society can mutually benefit from each other.

With its iconic buildings, Leiden University has a strong presence throughout the city. The university has left its mark clearly on museum collections in the city.

Plants, algae and cyanobacteria have the amazing capacity to perform delicate photophysical and photochemical processes of light capture, excitation transfer, charge separation and catalysis in fluctuating living environments. As a consequence, photosynthetic proteins and membranes form dynamic architectures.…

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2022, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

The Cryogenics Department has a liquid helium production unit and an automatic liquid nitrogen filling plant.

Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) is an internationally oriented institute for research and education in biology. We are part of the Faculty of Science at Leiden University.

Science for Sustainable Societies offers an exciting combination of theory and practice. While analysing and examining relevant topics from both the natural and the social sciences domains, you will also gain lots of hands-on experience. Interactive learning and working together in a team are important…

LED3 is the combined effort of four excellent institutes of Leiden University. Through joined hands, we are able to give rise to a more effective early drug discovery pipeline. Let us briefly introduce the institutes.

During the Leiden Science Family Day, you can take part in various workshops. You can also watch various demonstrations. Where will you go?

Our analytical facility supports IBL researchers by centralizing major instrumentation under a single management structure within dedicated laboratories. The available equipment includes both liquid and gas chromatography systems, along with a range of advanced mass spectrometry instruments such as…

Members of the collective explore what it means to be ‘human’, in the past and present, from a range of different perspectives and inter-disciplinary approaches.

The Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) is a centre of excellence for multidisciplinary research on drug discovery and development.

From molecule, to cell, to organism. The high-level drug research at the Cell Observatory aimes at reducing the spread of cancer and developing new medicines for tuberculosis.

We investigate water quality and want to understand the effects of human interference on aquatic biodiversity.

For a first time the atlas maps the soil biodiversity of the entire planet, and provide s comprehensive analysis of human-induced threats to soil organisms and soil functioning, facilitating development of new policies to protect soil and soil organisms.

Leiden academics research the world around us and pass on their knowledge to future generations. Each with his or her individual expertise and personal fascination for a particular discipline, they are the public face of the University.

The Museums, Collections & Society research programme is led by the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Archaeology and aims to promote collection-based research, stimulate Leiden education in this field, and raise ethical questions regarding the collections’ origins.

Rembrandt painted this Flora, the Roman goddess of spring, in 1635. She is on display above the archway leading from the Academy Building to the lush flora of the University’s Hortus Botanicus. Rembrandt, who had his own cabinet of curiosities, almost certainly knew this botanical garden, the oldest…

The Institute Board is responsible for the overall management of the institute, as well as the administration and organization of the institute’s teaching and research activities. Research and education are managed collaboratively, with strategic input from various representatives and groups, including…

The CIGR brings together a diverse range of unique expertise in genome research rooted in biology, chemistry and physics. Members of the CIGR investigate genome folding and genome transactions. An important aspect is direct as well as long term relevance for medicine.

Research at the department of Environmental Biology

LIACS organizes different lectures and seminars like the LCN2 Seminars and SAILS Lunch Time-seminars.

On this page, you will find the recordings of the Tuesday Talks since April 2025. Recordings of the precursor to the Tuesday Talks, This Week’s Discoveries, are also available here.

Webinar with Q&A

The Leiden University Network for Health in Africa (LUNHA) aims to shift the focus of global health to be more about justice, fairness, and inclusion.

PhD defence

PhD defence

This project investigates the causes of the major archaeological change in the period of 40.000-20.000 BC in South Africa.

Crises like climate change and loss of biodiversity threaten our planet. That’s why sustainability is an important topic in research and education across Leiden University. On this website you read how scientists from many disciplines work together in researching sustainability.

Martijn Bezemer has been appointed as professor in “Ecology of plant-microbe-insect interactions” within the Faculty of Science at the Institute of Biology from the 1st of September 2016. His main research focus is on aboveground-belowground interactions.

Roderick Bouman is collection manager of the Leiden Hortus botanicus. He keeps track of which plants there are in the garden, where they come from and makes sure visitors can find the right information about them. ‘We are like a regular museum,’ says Bouman. ‘Except that our objects are alive. That…

Which plant species grow where - and why? In a new study in Nature Ecology & Evolution, an international research team presents the world's first global vegetation database which contains over 1.1 million complete lists of plant species for all terrestrial ecosystems. Leiden professor of Environmental…

Leiden researchers, Professor Remko Offringa and co-applicants Salma Balazadeh and Frederic Lens received an NWO-XL grant (2.5 million euros). Together with researchers in Wageningen and Groningen, they will study the genetic and environmental drivers of woodiness. From plant to molecule, the groups…

Various companies in the plant biotech industry will test a recent Leiden discovery in their crops. The ‘Pol Theta’ technology is developed in Leiden and makes it possible to reduce undesired side effects during genome engineering of plants.

‘It was a discovery we did not expect,’ says Remko Offringa, professor of Plant developmental genetics. Today he publishes a new trait of a versatile gene in Current Biology: it makes the difference in plants between herbaceous and woody stem growth. A useful feature to prevent dehydration.

Overview of all dissertations published by PhD candidates from CML.

Hortus botanicus Leiden is the first Dutch garden to receive an accreditation from Botanic Gardens International (BGCI). The Conservation Practitioner Accreditation is a certificate that recognizes the policy, knowledge & expertise and education with regard to plant conservation at an international…

The Around the Rapenburg walk takes you along the canal where Leiden University was founded 450 years ago.

Master's student Thalia Luden receives an NWO grant for her research proposal about a gene that brings flowering plants back into a growth phase. Companies in floriculture and vegetable seed breeding also contribute to the research.

Botanisch filosoof Norbert Peeters vertelt over hoe mensen omgaan met planten in het algemeen, en met onkruid in het bijzonder.

An international research team is to search for invisible life in the Galápagos Islands. The diversity of bacteria and other microscopic organisms may not be evident to the naked eye, but it is essential to nature. To the islands' giant daisies, for instance: unique endemic plants that are currently…

A publication in Nature Plants by a team of Leiden biologists has received national and international media attention. The researchers can have annuals flower multiple times thanks to a particular gene they discovered.

Plants are vital resources throughout human history, but we know little about how they were used and valued prior to agriculture. Sandrine Gallois, an ethnoecologist working in the ERC-funded HARVEST project, has developed an interdisciplinary approach, combining anthropology and botany to explore how…

Plant communities consisting of many different species are less vulnerable to attacks of plant eating animals or diseases than less diverse communities. It also helps if plant species in one community are not closely related to each other. That is the outcome of an international study published in Nature…