On Friday evening 8 June, Thijs Bosker, Associate Professor at Leiden University College (LUC), was on television in NOS Jeugdjournaal about plastic pollution and microplastics

Projects in the department of Environmental Biology

After studying medicine in Leiden, Diederik Hofstede specialised in plastic surgery. 'I was attracted by its creativity and I enjoy working with my hands.' Cosmetic surgery is just 5% of the work.'

On Friday morning, 8 June, Thijs Bosker, Associate Professor at Leiden University College, was interviewed by NPO Radio 1 on plastic pollution in Antartctica: ''Anually, an additional 4 - 12 billion kilos of plastic ends up in our ocean''.

One person can already make a difference, and if all students and academics were eco-friendly, the world would be a much more sustainable place. Plastic Soup Surfer Merijn Tinga opened the academic year in Leiden with this message.

Improving health, enhancing well-being and reducing health disparities across society.

This year will see the start of not one but two citizen science projects in Leiden and The Hague. This is the outcome of a large survey among residents and researchers in both university cities. The Citizen Science Lab will help the winners implement their ideas, with support from the University and…

Whales in the vicinity of the city of Auckland, New Zealand consume large amounts of microplastics every day. A team of international researchers reached this conclusion after carefully examining whale poop. The team included Thijs Bosker, Associate Professor in Environmental Sciences at Leiden University…

International trade has played a major role in defining the modern global economy. Trade, however, entangles the environmental pressures of economic sectors, giving the illusion of environmental improvements, while the opposite may be occurring.

The University’s Vision on Student Well-Being outlines how the University plans to promote student well-being in the coming years.

Martin van Hecke en Anne Meeussen publiceren in het tijdschrift Nature over mechanische metamaterialen. Ze hebben een nieuwe klasse multistabiele materialen ontdekt. Dit is gebaseerd op ribbeltjes plastic.

Being a PhD candidate is not only about working on a manuscript. You also need to prepare a Training and supervision plan and take part in courses. Want to know how this works? Read this page to find out more.

It's now possible to measure how many plastic particles there are in our food. Chinese scientists and Leiden professor Willie Peijnenburg applied their new method to lettuce and wheat. Their results were published January 20 in Nature Nanotechnology.

Micro- and nanoplastics cause stress to crops such as lettuce and carrots, PhD candidate Laura Julia Zantis found. This can lead to reduced growth and a lower nutritional value. Biodegradable plastics have this effect too, likely because of chemicals they release during degradation.

Jo-Anne Verschoor wins the Unilever Research Prize 2020. The master's student in Biology developed a method to test whether bacteria are capable of degrading plastic. Verschoor: 'Using specific enzymes from these bacteria, we may be able to efficiently recycle plastic in the future.

Leiden researchers have discovered an enzyme that helps bacteria feed on everyday plastics. This common enzyme could play a crucial role in future research and eventually in addressing the global plastic crisis. The study was published in Nature Communications.

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.

A liveable planet. More biodiversity. And resources which are being managed wisely. At the CML, we want to make an impact with our research and education. On this website you can read what we do to achieve that.

LAPP student Heidi Kaarto and project leader Esther Kentin published an article on the right to regulate in relation to an EU ban on microplastics in a special issue on plastic regulation of Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law.

Over the course of the 20th century, politicians increasingly came to rely on experts. Their language was peppered with terms like ‘policy pathways’ and ‘evaluation frameworks’. This made debates more abstract and less ideological.

The theme 'Health and well-being in a healthy society' is one of the focal points of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FSW). We are committed to promoting health and well-being for people of all ages.

Nano-plastics cause malformations. Meiru Wang, researcher at the Institute of Biology Leiden, looked at the extreme effects polystyrene nano-particles could have, using chicken embryos as a model. Her results were quite alarming. Especially as nano-particles are everywhere. In the air, floating through…

A team of students from Leiden and Groningen took the second prize at the European final of the BISC-E sustainability competition. Last June, the team had already won the Dutch finals. The students came up with ‘Suckerspheres’, a natural alternative to the plastic micro-particles that are still frequently…

The research area "Health and well-being in a healthy society" studies the institutional and behavioral factors that play a role in health and well-being for people of all ages.

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

Recycling of post consumer plastic waste is problematic in that the environmental benefits are questionable and the costs are significant. It would be better to separately collect the most useful parts through the expansion of the deposit system.

What looked like an ordinary coot’s nest turned out to be a five-star location with a remarkable backstory. Beneath a jetty on the Rokin in Amsterdam, biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra discovered a true time capsule — complete with face masks from the COVID era and a Mars wrapper dating back to the 1994…

Research at the department of Environmental Biology

Both good employer practices and good employee practices are open norms. These open norms can lead to uncertainty about what employers should focus on and what rights (and obligations) employees have in that respect. The objective of this study is to give substance to the norm of good employment practices…

In the Port of Rotterdam, tiny industrial pellets leak into the environment, causing a form of pollution that’s hard to trace but highly persistent. Three students of the LDE Sustainability Honours Programme took on the challenge to identify sources of this pollution.

The analysis of protein residues extracted from the storage containers of circa 50,000 year old bone-tools reveals Neandertal strategic selection of bovid ribs to make some of their “lissoirs”.

In this article, Honorata Mazepus, assistant professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, and Dimiter Toshkov, associate professor at the Institute of Public Administration, discuss whether the winner–loser gap extends beyond the political domain to subjective health and well-being as…

An image has great powers of persuasion. It is said that ‘a picture is worth more than a thousand words’. But these days, images can easily be manipulated with severe consequences. ‘Perhaps it’s time to reconsider the value we attach to images’, says Elize de Mul, whose PhD thesis deals with ‘digital…

Exploring the landscapes of mental health and cardiometabolic research.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M.K. Richardson, Co-Promotor: F. Witte

Santideva's 8th century Mahayana Buddhist classic, the Guide to the Practices of Awakening (Bodhicaryavatara), has been a source of philosophical inspiration in the Indian and Tibetan traditions for over a thousand years.

Being a Slave brings together scholars and writers who try to come to terms with the histories and legacies of European slavery in the Indian Ocean.

Muhammad Adlin Sila examines the range of ways Bima Muslims constitute their Islamic identities and agencies through rituals and festivals. In response to their surroundings, what it means to be a Muslim is constantly being negotiated.

Lecture, Studium Generale

The Grachtwacht (Canal Watch) conducts research on urban wildlife and the impact of plastic on nature. With our clean-ups, we not only collect waste, but also data. This way we try to find out the source of the waste and turn off the tap on shore. This way there is structurally less plastic in the c…

Below you will find an overview of the publications of The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic.

On Tuesday 2 April Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, came to Leiden to receive the Plastic Avengers Manifest from Plastic Soup Surfer Merijn Tinga. The Manifest contains five key areas for a new approach to deal with how we use plastic.

This week, the cooperation between the Zwerfinator and Leiden University was in the news because of loose labels on deposit bottles. NOS news reported that the Zwerfinator submitted an enforcement request to the Inspectorate. The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic (LAPP) is supporting litter waste expert…

At the entrance of the Van Steenis building you may now visit an exhibition on material culture. Unexpectedly, it does not display pottery or tools, but building materials. And recent ones at that! Check out the exhibition on Legos lost at sea, conceived and assembled by PhD candidate Maia Casna. ‘These…