Four researchers from Leiden University have been awarded prestigious Vici grants the Dutch Research Council (NWO) has announced. The honoured applications are from researchers at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden Observatory, the LUMC and the Faculty of Archaeology.

The Second World War is a never ending experience for those who lived it. This is what Cleveringa professor Carol Gluck and her students concluded following a critical reading of ‘De Aanslag’ by Harry Mulisch. Mulisch’s novel took centre stage in Gluck’s Honours seminar.

Three cybersecurity consortia that Leiden University is part of have been awarded subsidies of over a million euros by NWO. Leiden is the coordinator for two of the projects.

A TikTok by student Loïs de Jong from Leiden University in which Leiden sparkles as a student city won the final of the Leiden Media Contest on 13 June. According to the jury, the film was ‘the most appealing for today’s generation of current and prospective students – it includes nearly all elements…

Chemist Alexander Kros and astronomer Joop Schaye are two of the four Leiden researchers who have been awarded a Vici as part of NWO's Innovation Research Incentives scheme. They each have 1.5 million euros to set up a research group and employ PhD candidates.

Warning colours ensure that predators remember that certain prey are poisonous. But now it appears that the colours of poisonous Panamanian frogs are also influenced by fastidious females: partner choice can also lead to colour change in these frogs, as Leiden researcher Martine Maan has reported in…

Rodrigo Ochigame’s project explores how AI redefines scientific evidence, aiming to help scientists critically navigate these transformations with the Veni grant.

Take a walk through any city, and you are likely to come across a brightly coloured mural. Although these paintings often seem to serve solely as a backdrop for Instagram snapshots, art history professor Minna Valjakka says there are rich traditions and intricate histories that uncover more critical…

How can a single origami crease pattern be folded into two precisely defined target shapes? Researchers at AMOLF and Leiden University have created an ‘alphabet’ of 140 origami ‘puzzle pieces’ that allows them to do just that, as described today in Nature Physics. This discovery could help in the construction…

How do galaxies form? That is what astronomer Mariska Kriek will be researching in the coming years. She received an NWO Vici grant of 1.5 million euros to study galaxies in the early universe. ‘This research uses new and unprecedented observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These allow…

Tropical butterflies adapt to their environment to improve their chances of survival. The changes are triggered by hormone signals that transmit information about temperature to the butterflies' tissues. Biologist Ana Rita Mateus shows how a complex combination of environment, physiology and genetics…

More than 700 visitors got to know the Science Faculty during the Leiden Science Family Day. People of all ages could enjoy fascinating experiments, tours, interesting lectures, spectacular nitrogen shows and various workshops. It was an informative day with many (future) scientists, amazement and,…

On 7 June, the National Museum of Antiquities opened a mini exhibition 'Scanning for Syria'. The exhibition shows how Leiden archaeologists and Delft technical specialists make reconstructions of 3000-year-old Assyrian clay tablets. The originals, stored in museum depots in Raqqa (Syria), have been…

The state should prepare 'lifers' better for returning to society, for example by giving them some control over their own lives. This is the finding of Marieke Liem in her book 'After Life Imprisonment', published on 19 August.

How do you manage a crisis? This is what Professor of Crisis Governance Sanneke Kuipers will address in her inaugural lecture.

For the first time, physicists have visualized the ‘melting’ of electrons inside a special class of insulators. It allows electrons to move freely and turns the insulator into a metal and possibly later into a superconductor. Publication in Nature Physics.

Alumni event

We talked to Hester Bijl about the worldwide protests sparked off by the death of George Floyd. A demonstration against racism will also be held in Leiden on 14 June. How does she, as Vice-Rector responsible for diversity and inclusion, view this issue? What steps is the University taking? And how can…

Lecture, LIMS seminar

Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights Outstanding Student Research Theses

Many students are finishing their master thesis on sustainability this summer. In this blog, we reflect on their topics, approaches, and goals by highlighting theses from Governance of Sustainability, European Law, Global Archaeology, Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Ecology, and…

No more lectures and exams for the Radio Astronomy course taught by Michiel Brentjens. The corona crisis is a moment of reflection that has changed his whole way of teaching. Instead of being in front of the class, he lets his students build a radio telescope with paint cans.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded Vidi grants to Leiden researchers.

From a ship that has been designed to tell you what maintenance it needs and when, to an intelligent journey planner for global goods transport. The three universities in Zuid-Holland are abuzz with AI research in the field of ports and maritime. Three researchers explain. Part two in a series of five…

In our digital society, the internet seems to offer endless possibilities for expressing yourself, gathering information, and making contact with others. The anonymity of the internet seems to give us the freedom to come and go as we please. But what about our online privacy? Should it be dealt with…

How does speculative literature respond to or incorporate the aural, sonic, or noisy? How are sonic technologies co-opted into practices of worldbuilding? How does the speculative mode of artistic and literary enquiry generate new possibilities of listening?

Book Presentation | Studium Generale Lecture

On this page you will find an overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2024, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

Leiden Law School has a strong tradition of research in the field of fact-finding and evidence in criminal cases.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2020, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

The Heritage Sector at a Crossroads: The way of Intersectionality. This project investigates how heritage institutions can achieve inclusion and accessibility within their organization, collection, and exhibition spaces that meets the breadth of demands placed by today’s “critical visitors.” Fifteen…

Many of the challenges of our time are too complex to be resolved within the confines of a single discipline. Leiden University is a broad-based university where an incredible number of research fields converge. That makes us the ideal breeding ground for, and practitioners of, interdisciplinary research…

What happens to the different waste streams?

This one-year master's programme explores the political and cultural evolution of the world from a long-term, and broad comparative perspective. This creates a better understanding of the entangled nature of today's society.

Lecture, Global Histories of Knowledge Seminar

In the 16th and 17th centuries, many Northern-Netherlandish artists drew outdoors to train their hands and eyes, and to record landscapes and nature. In her inaugural lecture on 21 March 2022, Yvonne Bleyerveld, Professor by Special Appointment of Art on Paper and Parchment, draws our attention to a…

It is a familiar phenomenon: you ask the assistant on your phone to call your mother, but it calls a friend instead. Tom Kouwenhoven, PhD student in the SAILS programme, investigates how humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can better communicate with each other, so that these kinds of situations…

Historians and experts in American studies from Leiden University are holding an online international conference about the arrival of the Pilgrims in America and the consequences for the indigenous societies. We asked four questions to two of its organisers, American Studies expert Joke Kardux and historian…

Anna Loh is a third-year student of the BA in Arts, Media and Society. We spoke with Anna about what it’s like to write a thesis during COVID-19, Instagram selfies at the museum and growing up abroad.

It is a familiar phenomenon: you ask the assistant on your phone to call your mother, but it calls a friend instead. Tom Kouwenhoven, PhD student in the SAILS programme, investigates how humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can better communicate with each other, so that these kinds of situations…

‘Make more room for nature on farmland and you'll be surprised at the result.' This was the advice from Geert de Snoo in his Dies lecture.

In the summer of 2019, South African student Tarryn Abrahams was awarded a scholarship from the Mandela Scholarship Fund. She is now spending a semester in Leiden, and following four courses at Leiden Law School. ‘I’m learning to engage more in lectures.’

North Korea may seem like an isolated country but it has strong ties with African regimes. This alliance, which trades in arms despite international sanctions, is increasingly operating out of the liberal world order’s sight, PhD candidate Tycho van der Hoog warns.

Joost Beltman (LACDR, Leiden University) has provided novel insights in the way T cells migrate towards virus-infected cells. This was accomplished by a combination of experimental research in the group of Ton Schumacher (Dutch Cancer Institute, NKI) and computer simulations in collaboration with Rob…

On the occasion of the retirement of Robert Ross, Professor in African History at Leiden University, his successor and former student Jan-Bart Gewald wrote a valedictory note.

We are grief-stricken that our PhD student Maolin Zhang passed away during the early morning of January 17th 2019. He died during a terrible fire that took place at his house in Hillegom.

Confetti, stilt walkers and the new Einstein Fountain. On Monday, 2 September, the Gorlaeus Building of the Faculty of Science was festively opened. Together with Constantijn van Oranje, our students cut the ribbon. Dean Jasper Knoester: ‘The building is ready, now it is up to our students and researchers…

Writing a report for a teacher, getting a grade and then no one ever cares about your research again. Pity, isn't it? That is quite different in the course Personal and Professional Impact (PPI). During this third-year bachelor's course of Cultural Anthropology students apply their anthropological knowledge…

A special type of mirror to reflect X-rays has more possible applications than space research. Targeted radiation therapy for cancer, for example. Next to his full-time job, physicist David Girou mapped out the possibilities. He will receive his PhD on 14 June.

Associate Professor Lettie Dorst has received a Vidi grant to research how machine translation programmes such as Google Translate and ChatGPT translate words and expressions used metaphorically. This still regularly goes wrong, resulting in far too literal, incorrect and sometimes incomprehensible…