Unplugging equipment that's secretly guzzling electricity, putting the curtains behind the radiator and only using a water-saving showerhead. The students participating in the Student Energy Race are given tips that everyone who cares about the environment and their wallets should learn from.

The coal-power energy sector is using enormous amounts of fresh water which is projected to negatively affect lives and the ecological balance of the surrounding region. This is the conclusion of the new report The Unquenchable Thirst of Energy Production, published by Greenpeace Bulgaria and Leiden…

Children are perfect scientists: they are bursting with curiosity, they want to know how the world works and they go exploring every day. Yet many children barely get a chance to be engaged in science. A number of scientists from the Young Academy want to change that. They have received 150,000 euros…

It came as a shock to many people: one million plant and animal species are threatened to become extinct. But this number isn’t the most relevant aspect, argue Alexander van Oudenhoven, Koos Biesmeijer and three other experts in Dutch newspaper Trouw. ‘It is more important to realise that the fate of…

A vitamin D deficiency is often associated with smoggy English industrial cities during the Industrial Revolution, but research carried out on skeletons now suggests that the ‘English disease’ was also prevalent in rural areas of the Netherlands. Doctoral defence on 29 January.

This summer, Leiden, The Hague, Noordwijk and Delft will be hosting the ‘Sizzling Summer of Space’. To tie in with the international Space Studies Programme, all kinds of activities on space exploration are being organised, from a film evening to a Science Café and an exhibition of satellites to the…

Some governments and companies are pursuing a more circular economy, but what is the best way to get there? An international group of industrial ecology researchers wrote a report that stresses the importance of including the scientific side into policies and practices. ‘We feel an obligation to support…

Amid the many traditions of Leiden’s 3 October Festival, a relative newcomer is beginning to take hold: the Science Market. At market stalls, the people of Leiden could explore or even participate in Leiden’s research – performing an ‘operation’ in the street, for example.

Synthetic fuel is cleaner than natural oil, but its production process needs to be more efficient. Now for the first time, physicists have directly observed the molecules produced in the chemical process. This paves the way for designing more efficient catalysts. Publication on September 19th in Nature…

Environmental scientists Stefano Cucurachi and Paul Behrens and astronomer Jorryt Matthee have received prizes during the New Year's reception of the Faculty of Science on Tuesday 8 January. In addition, Kavli Prize winner Ewine van Dishoeck announced a new award.

A plant that takes metal from the ground all by itself: a natural way to mine or to clean the soil. PhD student Roderick Bouman (Hortus Botanicus Leiden) described a new plant species from Sabah, Borneo, which can be used to extract nickel. In an open access article in Botanical studies, he and the…

A sense of security plays an important role in the decision to contribute to nature conservation. Stacey Mac Donald conducted four years of research on the influence of social and political changes and the (post) colonial context on nature conservation in the Dutch Caribbean. On 17 May she will defend…

Bringing science, technology and innovation to places that normally do not have access to these areas of knowledge. This is the goal of the first Open Science Hub in Portugal, founded in 2017 in collaboration with Leiden University. The hub is managed by assistant professor of astronomy and society…

A public symposium was held at Leiden University on 20 February on a hot topic: renewable energy. This is the second time in a year that the University has organised such a symposium. The previous one, about Artificial Intelligence, was a big success.

Two PhD defences on 9 June by behavioural biologist Errol Neo and underwater acousticianan Özkan Sertlek relate to measuring noise in the North Sea and the harm this noise can do to aquatic animals and their surroundings. Little is known about how harmful human noise can be to aquatic animals.

For a number of years, two ‘boxes’ in the Canary Islands and Chile have been scouring the skies for exoplanets that orbit bright stars. PhD candidate Geert Jan Talens helped develop these ‘MASCARA’ telescopes and has made the first discoveries with them. Together with him, we answer the main questions…

Halfway through his career alumnus Marc Tijhuis made a radical change: he left the corporate world to join the global battle against waste with the International Solid Waste Association.

Are you curious about how the human skeleton works? Discover this and more on 3 October in Leiden and on 4 October in The Hague.

Researching as a student how you can make your own student house free of natural gas. That is now possible because of a new collaboration between Leiden University and the municipality of Leiden and The Hague.

Lou Boshart won the Excellence in Visual & Multimodal Ethnography Thesis Prize for his film ‘Layers of Confidence’. Lou produced a multimodal thesis about the way rat catchers in New Zealand enact conservation policies and reflect on the ethical challenges of eradicating invasive species. Xiaohui Liu…

How do you study complex disasters like a nuclear explosion or a natural disaster? Who can help unravel the legal knot that Brexit has become? The important societal themes of the present day call for interdisciplinary collaboration. Leiden scientists pitched their research at a symposium at Leiden…

Easily detecting chemical substances that indicate whether or not someone is ill, or measuring how healthy the environment is, and directly linking that result to that person. In a nutshell, this is what researchers within the Dutch National Research Agenda (NWA) want to achieve in the ‘Measuring and…

What we buy and consume in Europe often has an impact on biodiversity somewhere else in the world. With a Horizon Europe Funding of 600.000 euros, assistant professor Laura Scherer and her team will develop models to look at the impact of global trade in non-food biomass. ‘After developing the models,…

Newts of which half of the offspring die before birth. Evolutionary biologist Ben Wielstra is investigating how this can exist in nature. In his research he collaborates with Naturalis Biodiversity Center.

On Thursday 16 November 2017 Thomas Leclerc will defend his PhD Dissertation ‘A Corrective Approach to Reduce Aircraft Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Contribution to the Study of Interactions between Legal Orders of International Law’. The defence will commence at 13.45 hrs, at the Academy Building of Leiden…

SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research is moving. The headquarters of the institute will relocate to the Science Campus of Leiden University. In October 2019, the first pile was officially put into the ground; in 2021, the building will be ready for use. A first glimpse at the building that will…

The changes that humans are making to the landscape are beneficial for mosquitoes that spread diseases such as Zika, chikungunya and dengue. This is what biologist Maarten Schrama and his colleagues write in the journal Nature Scientific Reports. ‘If we know in which living environments mosquitoes thrive…

As of 1 May 2018, Nicole de Voogd has been appointed as Professor by special appointment Global change and marine ecosystems at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML). She is currently senior researcher at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the field of tropical marine ecosystems.

Imagine: you are at the end of your fieldwork in Peru and ready to go home when all flights get canceled because of Covid-19. It happened to master student Visual Ethnography Mark Lindenberg. By now, four months later than scheduled, he is back in the Netherlands. How does he look back? And what was…

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…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is often portrayed as a technological saviour for addressing climate change. But there are risks associated with its use, observes Barrie Sander.

The nominees for the IRO Thesis Prize 2024 and the Prof. Dr. J.Th.J. van den Berg-prijs 2024. Who authored the best thesis in Leiden University’s bachelor’s programme in Political Science?

Five consortia within the Perspectief programme that include Leiden researchers have received funding to start their research projects. These projects focus on (further) developing technological innovations, with societal and economic impact at their core.

By 2050, 70 per cent of the world's population will live in cities. This has major consequences for the lives of city-dwellers and for the environment. Uncontrolled urbanisation calls for an interdisciplinary approach. On 4 September, the first group of students started the new English-language Bachelor's…

You might take photos and selfies with your phone's camera, or scan a QR code. But there is much more you can do with it. Astronomer Olivier Burggraaff developed a phone attachment that allows you to take measurements of surface water with your smartphone. He will receive his PhD on 13 December.

COVID-19 has shaken the world. 170 academics of eight different Dutch universities believe the time is right for a positive and meaningful vision. They signed a manifesto with a list of five policy proposals for a post-COVID 19 development model to cope with this pandemic and other social and environmental…

Humans have influenced nature since as early as the Ice Age, and over the past century man’s impact has become even greater with our many new technologies and a growing world population. Leiden researchers study this impact and how we can keep it within reasonable limits so that nature can be preserved.…

The students from the Leiden University Green Office have big ambitions and have outlined their recommendations in a new Green Paper. Like being the most sustainable university in the world by 2030. Students Janey Franssen and Job Kemperman are two of the paper’s authors. How do they want to achieve…

Cultural anthropologist Sabine Luning, cultural historian Paul van de Laar and professor of architecture and urban development history Carola Hein say that the things that are not shown in images are also worth studying.

Dutch researchers are joining forces to conduct research together with a series of societal partners to keep the biological clock healthy in our modern 24-hour society. The BioClock consortium will receive a research grant of no less than 9.7 million euros for this. It is one of the projects that receive…

A banker who puts making money second and makes a profit nonetheless. A farmer who stops ploughing and using insecticides but still has a good harvest. A new white paper by Leiden-Delft-Erasmus and Naturalis Biodiversity Center shows how the meeting of disciplines provides solutions to climate change…

Yousef Yousef (39), a successful entrepreneur in the water-quality industry, recently joined the Advisory Board at Leiden Law School. Read the interview about his career.

Coral reefs throughout the world are under threat. After studying the reefs in Malaysia, Zarinah Waheed concluded that there is room for improvement in coral reef conservation. PhD defence 22 November.

From children’s birthday parties to international ambassadors, the Old Observatory attracts a wide range of visitors. Student coordinator Sanne van Beek connects visitors and students, ensuring everyone — from five to sixty-five — learns something about the stars.

Receiving positive support and seeing yourself as being a quitter may help smokers quit, say Eline Meijer and colleagues. The health psychologists published their study in Social Science & Medicine.

To relieve a patient's pain, it can be effective to induce expectations. This finding is promising for optimising the effectiveness of treatments, conclude Kaya Peerdeman and colleagues in their article in PAIN.

Following the United Nations Day of peace the kick off of World Class The Hague 2019-2020 took place at Museon, The Hague. World Class is a forum for discussion where selected students from various institutions across The Hague are given the opportunity to visit international institutions, engage in…

Social entrepreneur, Co-Founder of 'Women in Innovation and Leadership' and LUC student. In a recent article published by German news outlet 'Bento' third year student in Governance, Economics and Development Jennifer Pfister spoke about her role as a social entrepreneur and student at LUC.

If you imagine in advance that something is not going to hurt, this could mean you experience less pain. This discovery was made by health psychologist Kaya Peerdeman during her PhD research on the placebo effect. PhD defence 7 February.

PhD defence