During the ‘Hour of Remembrance’ on 4 May, the University community remembers its students and staff who were killed in the Second World War. It also looks at freedom and oppression today. Three questions for Sara Polak, chair of the Hour of Remembrance committee.

Conference

Leiden University offers a broad range of support for finding, writing, and applying for research funding. The first point of contact is your local grant adviser at your faculty/institute, who can guide you through the application process and answer any questions you may have. If your faculty/institute…

How do harrowing war experiences affect different generations? Students have made a video about poignant family stories. They interviewed other students and writer Dubravka Ugrešić. The premiere of the film was on 4 May during the online Hour of Remembrance. Watch this online memorial.

The academic year officially commences on 1 September and ends on 31 August. On collective closing days the university is closed and no lectures take place. The academic calendar applies to the whole university and to all study programmes with the exception of medicine.

Organisation

A group of nine activists from Students for Palestine occupied part of the Academy Building on Wednesday 26 November. Outside, a group of around 30 demonstrators chanted slogans and called on the Executive Board to sever ties with Israeli universities.

Who wouldn’t want their own episode of Het Klokhuis? Researchers Milica Nikolic and Chris Riddell are in the running for the Klokhuis Wetenschapsprijs, which aims to introduce a broad and young audience to scientific research in the Netherlands.

Izra ter Weer's mother had studied English Language and Culture in Leiden and was always so enthusiastic about her studies that Izra decided to follow in her footsteps. After completing a Master's degree in Linguistics, she now works as a consultant at strategic consultancy firm Sprenkels and organises…

Organisation

On 15 June 2023, the book presentation for the ‘Panta Rhei: recht en duurzaamheid’ (Panta Rhei: law and sustainability) was held at the Oude Sterrenwacht in Leiden. The book provides an overview of research in the field of sustainability conducted at Leiden Law School and was compiled by Yvonne Erkens,…

Recently the book “Privaatrecht 2050. De weg naar ecologische duurzaamheid” is published.

Adults who were abused or mistreated as a child and consequently suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can benefit greatly from cognitive behavioural therapy. This is the conclusion of a study of 149 patients. Researcher and PhD candidate Chris Hoeboer is hopeful about the results and the…

Een orang-oetan lacht niet gauw hard om een video waarin een soortgenoot dat ook doet. Een peuter doet het meer dan een volwassene, een Japanner weer iets minder. Chris Riddell leerde uit zijn vele experimenten ook dat geduld loont. Hij promoveert 16 september.

An Iron Age skull, a unicorn for cleaning your ear and thousands of beer jugs. Alumnus and archaeologist Chris Muysson has made remarkable discoveries at the Binnenhof government complex in The Hague. ‘Each puzzle piece tells us more about its history.’

A memorial stone honouring professor and resistance hero Ben Telders was unveiled on 12 September at the site of the former concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

Learn to program, gain knowledge of AI methods, or use it in a research project at the LACDR. With the introduction of the innovative digital learning environment ‘Digital Labcoat’, Biopharmaceutical Sciences bachelor students can further develop their computational skills.

On Tuesday 10 January, the Meijers Lecture was held followed by the New Year’s reception in the restaurant of the Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw. Dean Joanne van der Leun opened the reception with a New Year’s speech. The following is a short overview of the event.

Eveline Crone has been selected for the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Social & Affective Neuroscience Society (SANS). 'It's very special to get recognition from your peers in the United States.'

A leaving do, birthday or other celebration? Many people like to ask for a donation to a good cause for their birthday or anniversary present. Leiden research can be one such cause.

After twenty weeks of hard work, third-year students of International Studies wrapped up the ‘Practising International Studies’ (PRINS) consultancy course by pitching their major research findings and advice to organisational partners. We were invited to attend the presentations on behalf of the International…

He officially began as Strategic Adviser for Real Estate on 1 July. But in practice, Ferdy Poppelier, the former Director of Real Estate, will still mainly be the principal of construction projects. ‘It’s great to see that we as the Real Estate expertise centre have achieved so much.’

The university campus at the Leiden Bio Science Park is flourishing. A new book tells the stories behind this remarkable metamorphosis.

On Tuesday 19 March, Chris Suijker (Director of Real Estate) handed over the key of the Herta Mohr Building to Saskia Goedhard (Executive Director of the Faculty of Humanities), officially transferring the management of this building to the Faculty of Humanities.

Leiden University’s Institute for Security and Global Affairs and Dual PhD Centre jointly organize an online lecture on 23 April, 15.00 hrs by Cleveringa Professor General Roméo Dallaire on “How a better world is possible”: Cooperation between Science and Practice.

A new administrative culture. Renewed vigour. More transparency. Will it become reality with the new government? And how do you go about achieving it? By all of us striving to change together: not just politicians, but also stakeholders, civil servants, media, and civilians. That was the conclusion…

Cyber-attacks, privacy-related problems or failures in functioning: many technologies that are used every day have security issues that are solved when the software is already in use. A new interdisciplinary project, in which Olga Gadyatskaya, Harry Wijshoff, Alex Uta and Kristian Rietveld from the…

Electrical inner ear prostheses like Cochlear Implants (CIs) help deaf and severely hearing-impaired persons to regain many of their communication abilities. The performance of CI in social environments is, however, not optimal. The new "Machine learning To Enhance teMPoral cOding foR cochleAr impLants“…

The construction of 285 student studios on land owned by Leiden University is a step closer. On Thursday, student housing organisation DUWO and the Real Estate department of the University signed the leasehold agreement for the parcel of land in the Oegstgeest part of the Leiden Bio Science Park.

Is it acceptable for an algorithm to make mistakes? Quinten Meertens investigated this at Leiden University and the UvA and has been nominated with his research for the prestigious Christiaan Huygens Science Prize. The winner will be announced on 11 October. In April, Meertens received his doctorate…

Sport brings people together. This became clear on 9 April during the official opening of the new University Sports Centre. In a varied programme with live sports acts and even a basketball session with an Olympic champion, sport, history and human connection came together in a building designed for…

Black-and-white photographs filled with solemn young men and distinguished professors line the walls of the Grand Auditorium. Young women are missing from the photos; women rarely obtained PhDs 50 years ago. And this article is about that group, the PhD candidates between 1966 and 1972, who were invited…

Protest is a human right and an important way to hold the authorities to account. But how does the right to protest relate to academic freedom and the right to education?

On Tuesday 5 September, the opening of the faculty year took place at the Kamerlingh Onnes Building. Staff and students gathered in the Cleveringa Room to take part in the interactive part of the programme.

Welcome to the Expertise Centre for Teaching and Learning (ECOLe) of the Faculty of Humanities. Here you will find information on didactics, teacher development, teaching innovation, assessment and the use of teaching tools. Have a question or need advice? E-mail ecole@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

Alumna Nadia Kadhim started in 2017 as a corporate lawyer implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at one of the companies where she volunteered. By late 2022 she had received both a Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Award and was on the Forbes 30 under 30 list with her legal start-up…

2025 was a year to remember at our faculty. We celebrated our 450th anniversary, launched new degree programmes and welcomed many inspiring speakers, yet we also felt the weight of budget constraints. Our year in a nutshell:

Researchers from Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) have discovered how malaria parasites escape the immune system of mosquitoes. The so-called QC enzyme changes proteins on the outside of the malaria parasite such that the immune cells are unable to recognise the parasite. As a result, the parasite…

The International symposium on artistic research methods organized by ACPA and the Platform for Arts Research in Collaboration (PARC), in coordination with Fontys Tilburg and SAR– took place on 9th April, 2024 at the Textile Museum in Tilburg. The recordings are now online at whatmethodsdo.com.