The Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference was founded in 2013 to publish a selection of the best papers presented at the biennial LUCAS Graduate Conference, an international and interdisciplinary humanities conference organized by the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS). The…

The ability to create objects and structures with our hands has been essential to human development. This ability is something modern society is at risk of losing. Leiden archaeologists gather knowledge about ancient processes of ‘making and creating’ over the centuries, knowledge that helps our current…

Situated on the west coast of modern Turkey, the site of Ephesus is one of the largest excavations in Turkey and one of the most visited tourist attractions. Only one tenth of the city has been exposed until now although the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna (ÖAI) has been excavating here…

A computer can look at, and learn from, many more images than a human specialist. AI systems are rapidly becoming indispensable for medical and biological applications. But they still have to learn how to explain their decisions.

Multiple identities of elites and ‘commoners’ viewed through the lens of crafting from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Ages in Europe and the Mediterranean

Throughout all domains of life, from bacteria and archaea to eukaryotes, genomes adopt well-organized three-dimensional structures that can change in space and time to accommodate preferred transcriptional programs for environmental adaptation, the maintenance of cellular identity and differentiation…

Rural cult places were of central importance in the non-urbanised areas of ancient Samnium, in central southern Italy. Their development, roles and functions in ancient society, however, remain important research questions. New excavations at one of these sanctuaries, the rural temple of S. Giovanni…

The Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) is one of the few research institutes in the world in which researchers in the field of literature, art, architecture, design and media studies come together to conduct research into the cultural production of the western world, from classical…

Addressing loneliness faced by students with special needs and aiming to sense the dynamics and perceptions of students during unstructured school time.

Even though more than 4000 extra-solar planets are known today, only a small fraction of these has been captured in an image. To better understand the planet formation mechanisms in solar-like environments we started the Young Suns Exoplanet Survey (YSES).

Built Environment and Domestic Material Culture in the Medieval and Post-Medieval Cyclades, Greece (13th – 20th Centuries AD)

We have studied shape with a particular focus on the zebrafish model system. The shape is an essential appearance of the phenotype of a biological specimen and it can be used to read out a current state or response or to study gene expression.

Streptomyces bacteria are a valuable source of natural products, many of which are used in the clinic or in biotechnology.

Director: Dr. Fred Leemhuis

This book focuses on the element of thresholds – makeshift gates, makeshift structures and house doors – as concepts of liminality in ancient Near Eastern magical rituals, and the idea of transformation they reflect.

This volume explores the nature of ellipsis, the core phenomenon that results in various types of omission in sentences.

The Secret Life of Art Works. Exploring the Boundaries between Art and Life is the first collection of essays to present case studies from the visual arts, architecture, sculpture and numismatics, and to engage critically with theoretical perspectives from art history, psychology, aesthetics and ant…

We investigate the physics and design of mechanical metamaterial, intricately sculpted materials with properties set by their architecture.

In this work, we illustrate unconventional approaches towards the fabrication of edge functionalized graphene nanostructures and bidimensional architectures in polymeric and metallic supports, with an outlook towards molecular sensing devices.

A neurobiological perspective on individual differences in social competence

In this thesis I highlight the applications of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing. This technique is a relatively new approach in the sequencing field, where nanopores are embedded in a membrane, DNA molecules are pulled through nanopores and an electrical current serving as the sequencing…

Global health governance is at a crossroads. As the world reckons with the existential threat of planetary crises (climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution), international policy frameworks struggle to keep pace with a rapidly changing landscape in global health and public health.

Together with colleagues from the Stimson Center and in the framework of the Global Governance Innovation Network, Dr. Joris Larik has recently published the report

Utilizing the polymeric platform of polypept(o)ides, this thesis describes synthesis and investigation of novel triblock copolymers to obtain carrier systems with multiple compartments for efficient siRNA delivery. Although the individual microstructure of nanoparticles differs depending on the polymeric…

Streptomyces are multicellular, Gram-positive bacteria in the phylum of actinobacteria which produce a high amount of bioactive natural products of which the expression is tightly coordinated with the life cycle.

Towns and elites in Merovingian northern Gaul, 450-650

Bernini and Pallavicino, the artist and the Jesuit cardinal, are closely related figures at the papal courts of Urban VIII and Alexander VII, at which Bernini was the principal artist. The analysis of Pallavicino's writings offers a new perspective on Bernini's art and artistry and allow us to understand…

Constraint multi-objective optimization with a limited budget for function evaluations is challenging. This thesis tackles this problem by proposing new optimization algorithms. These algorithms are applied on holistic ship design problems. This helps naval architects balance objectives like cost, efficiency,…

As part of the VIDI 'Cultural innovation in a globalising society: Egypt in the Roman world', this research explores manifestations of Egypt in the material culture of Augustan Rome. This period was a crucial turning point for the urban landscape of Rome, which was characterised by cultural diversit…

Promotores: Prof.dr. J.N. Kok, Prof.dr. M.R.V. Chaudron, Co-Promotor: P. van der Putten

Rembrandt & Leiden University: The Bigger Picture commemorates the 444th anniversary of Leiden University and the 2019 Rembrandt Year. Our special thanks go to Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nuremberg), The Leiden Collection (New York), Museum De Lakenhal (Leiden), Mauritshuis (The Hague), Rijksmuseum/Musée…

Within this project, PeptoMiktoStars were realized through an orthogonal protecting group strategy and should be investigated further regarding their potential as drug delivery systems in the field of drug delivery to inflamed areas in cancer, bacterial infections or autoimmune diseases.

This research cluster explores processes of cultural creation, reception and transformation within a wide range of societal contexts from the early Middle Ages until c. 1800.

How do humans, non-humans and their interactions and relations shape the home as ecological and social space?

This book presents an archaeological overview of the presence and development of Egyptian material culture in the context of Augustan Rome.

This thesis explores how electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy can be used to investigate key biochemical processes.

Biopolymer sequencing with graphene edge-based tunnel junctions has the potential to overcome current limitations with the third generation of sequencing based on biological nanopores.

The Algorithms and Software Technology (AST) research programme performs fundamental research in the areas of algorithm design and analysis.

Subproject of

In this journal article, Dr. Joris Larik and Dr. Richard Ponzio put forward a broad-based pandemic recovery agenda that goes hand in hand with institutional reforms at the global level.

Advancing AutoML systems targeting machine learning tasks based on Earth Observation (EO) Datasets.

Discover the connection between skateboarding and sensory ethnography in 32 of The Routledge International Handbook of Sensory Ethnography as part of the Multi-modal sensory ethnography.

Sarah Giest, Assistant Professor at Leiden Univeristy, researched the topic of regulatory and market structures that affect nudge implementation by private actors, captured by the ‘budge’ idea.

Pharmaceutical companies, governments and the general public have become increasingly aware that animal models used in drug testing lack vital aspects to serve as an accurate representation of human biology. As models of the human body should become more physiologically relevant, animal models no longer…

LUCIS publishes two peer-reviewed book series, “Leiden Studies in Islam and Society” (Brill) and “Debates on Islam and Society” (Leiden University Press).

Time-series forecasting through modelling sequences of temporally dependent observations has many industrial and scientific applications. While machine learning models have been widely used to create time-series forecasting models, creating efficient and performant time-series forecasting models is…

This book investigates the effects of brain lesions in the left hemisphere, specifically Broca's area, on the production and perception of vowels, of word tones and of the linguistic use of sentence melody.

Promotor: Prof.dr. S. Portegies Zwart

A Companion to Cities in the Greco-Roman World offers in-depth coverage of the most important topics in the study of Greek and Roman urbanism. Bringing together contributions by an international panel of experts, this comprehensive resource addresses traditional topics in the study of ancient cities,…