Each year, poppies disperse seeds that grow into a new generation of flowers. Sometimes, some of the seeds postpone their germination for a few years, for example when they’re covered by a layer of sand. Only when the sand disappears, do they start to sprout. Margriet Oomen did mathematical research…

Tuberculosis causes 1.5 million deaths yearly and anti-tuberculosis therapies are threatened by emergence of drug resistance. Development of innovative drug combinations should be accelerated with the use of translational pharmacological models. Moreover, host-directed therapies (HDT), which stimulate…

Training a robot in a real-life environment is more or less impossible. Computer scientist and psychologist Roy de Kleijn switched to training in a simulated, virtual one instead. ‘You do have a reality gap, but the more precisely you train the robot, the better it is in practice.’ His inspiration:…

At Leiden Observatory, researchers investigate the origin of stars and their planetary systems. They detect and characterize planets around other stars (exoplanets). They study how stars and planets form. And they follow molecules from interstellar clouds to nascent planet systems. This way they address…

Ceramics and Society in the Aegean from the 7th to the 20th century A.C. A Case Study from Boeotia, Central Greece (2003)

Education and Organisation Development

A full overview of MCBIM PhD theses.

Courses cover a broad range of relevant subjects and provide in-depth theoretical knowledge as well as training in practical skills and advanced research tools.

The programme provides you for a succesful career. As a graduate, you will be qualified for positions within organisations such as international courts.

Researchers at Leiden Observatory study the fundamental physics that creates structure in the Universe. These processes collect matter into galaxies and gas into stars. With the use of powerful telescopes and advanced calculations and computer simulations, Leiden astronomers seek to understand the origin,…

In this project, we aim to obtain a quantitative understanding of the role of the immune system in tumor regression, of the role of tumor cell heterogeneity in cancer growth and of tumor cell migration properties.

Assessing the effects of landscape and land-use changes on the visibility of archaeological landscapes in Central-Southern Italy.

Research by the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law covers financial law in a broad sense.

Leiden University's Citizen Science Lab supports and organizes initiatives where anyone can get started with scientific data and research. This is how we enrich research with insights from the community, make science accessible to all, and tackle important local issues together.

In 2009, the European Union adopted the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), mandating Member States to obtain 10% of all transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020.

The KNMI issues weather warnings in various codes depending on the weather's risk to people's safety. Below, you can read what the university and faculty follow for these codes.

Using the Dutch-led Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope, astronomers have discovered unusual radio waves coming from the nearby red dwarf star GJ1151. The radio waves bear the tell-tale signature of aurorae caused by an interaction between a star and its planet. The radio emission from a star-planet…

Over the years, many spectacular archaeological finds have been washed ashore on the Dutch coast. Among these a large assemblage of barbed points made of bone and antler from the Mesolithic (11,000-8000 BC). The species used by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to manufacture their barbed points remained…

An international team of scientists including Leiden's Joe Callingham has discovered nineteen red dwarf stars that unexpectedly emit radio waves. The outbursts possibly originate from interaction with exoplanets. The results of the research appear in two scientific publications.

Linguistic research on a unique collection of Dutch letters allowed us to gain access to the every-day language of people from various walks of life. Private letters by men, women and even children have been elaborately explored in the Letters as Loot researchprogramme, initiated and directed by prof.…

This pioneering project will answer this question by examining migrants through the eyes of the courts between 1600 and 1900. It aims to reveal patterns of continuity and change in: 1. Treatment of migrants by criminal courts; 2. Violence and conflicts between migrants and native born.

All kinds of reasons have been put forward for why plants apparently fail to make maximum use of the available light. None of these reasons can explain why after two billion years of evolution they are not black, like industrial photovoltaic solar cells. Are we missing something?

Monday afternoon 11 January saw the first Public Leadership Challenge: a gathering of professionals, academics and students. The theme was a hotly debated topic: the refugee crisis. Among the participants looking for solutions to this complex issue were four students from the (International) Leiden…

Every year, the Netherlands Red Cross and Belgian Red Cross-Flanders organise the Frits Kalshoven International Humanitarian Law Moot Court Competition. Eight teams from Belgium and the Netherlands participated in the 17th edition of the competition, from 5-7 March 2025 in The Hague. The team from Leiden…

The Kalshoven-Gieskes Forum is proud to announce that we will host the second annual “IHL Clinic Exchange Conference”, from 8 to 14 December, in The Hague.

Every year, the Netherlands Red Cross and Belgian Red Cross-Flanders organise the Frits Kalshoven IHL Competition. This competition aims to provide students with an opportunity to practically engage with IHL, the rules that govern the conduct of war, by attending expert lectures and workshops, engaging…

In 2013, Sylvestre Bonnet received an ERC Starting Grant to kill cancer with molecules that can be activated by light. Two postdocs and three PhD students later, the end approaches of his so far successful project.

The KNMI has issued a code red weather warning because of slippery conditions. This applies from 03.00 on Monday 15 February. All university buildings, both in Leiden and The Hague, will therefore remain closed until at least 12.00. Update: the buildings will reopen after 12.00.

Hundreds of students and staff from Leiden University gave a ‘whistle concert’ on 11 December against the planned cuts to higher education. Similar protests were held in other student cities on the same day.

From 25-27 March, second-year students of the Advanced MSc in International Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD) took part in the programme's annual visit to Geneva, Switzerland. Students participated in institutional visits focusing on a wide range mandates in the field of International Relations and Dip…

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.

For the first time research has been done on species literacy in the Netherlands. Children in primary schools know about 1 in 3 native animal species. Publication in Biological Conservation.

Wolves in the Netherlands mainly feed on wild animals such as wild boar and red and roe deer. But in areas such as Drenthe where these are scarce they also prey on free-roaming cattle used for nature conservation

The Dick Stufkens Prize 2017 for the best PhD thesis of the Holland Research School of Molecular Chemistry (HRSMC) is awarded to Dr Sven Askes. In his thesis

Public Defence by Jaap Brouwer and activities of prof. Marcel Cobussen PhD, Dick de Graaf, Nizar Rohana, Brigitte Kovacs, Lilo Nein, Danne Ojeda, Hans Kalliwoda, Frank Blokland, and Thalia Hoffman

‘Statistics? I hated that hard subject in school’, statistician Sanne Willems is often told. And that is a pity, she thinks, because statistics doesn’t necessarily have to be difficult. Together with two former fellow students, she set up a Statistics Communication section for good communication on…

For over a year now, the James Webb Telescope has been sending stunning images that exceed astronomers’ expectations. The photos are fascinating to see, but what exactly are we looking at? Assistant professor Melissa McClure explains.

Beautiful microscopic specimens play the leading role in the course 'Biodiversity Plant' for first-year Biology students. Normally these are put back in storage right after the course. But not this year!

The Grotius Centre has been running summer schools for many years now. The International Criminal Law Summer School will run for the 15th time this summer, and new schools are being added to the curriculum each year. Dr. Robert Heinsch, Associate Professor of International Law & Director Kalshoven-Gieskes…

Promotores: G.R. de Snoo, B. Sinsin, Co-Promotor: H.H. de Iongh

Since 2005 Leiden fieldschools have maintained local collaborations with archaeologists on Martinique carrying out surveys and excavations.