Making choices is part of life. You make larger or smaller choices in everything you do, and you progress from one choice/decision to the next. All decision-making processes involve three aspects: making a choice, experiencing that choice and reflecting on it.

Located in the friendly small city of Leiden in the centre of the Netherlands, Leiden University has for centuries been at the forefront of developments in science and that excellent continues today, with world-leading institutes of computer science, mathematics, physics, astronomy, and chemistry. …

By effectively integrating word-class scientific research and excellent education, you will become a professional astronomer with an internationally recognized degree.

Ancient historians have long been aware that patterns of coin circulation can shed light on levels of economic integration in the Roman Empire. More than forty years ago, Hopkins argued that large amounts of tax money were spent in the frontier provinces and that the non-military provinces recouped…

Bone research provides plenty of detailed data about the health of a person or a group. This data is not only used to reconstruct the past but also to fight disease today.

How can pre-Islamic poetry be used as a source to reconstruct the history of central Arabia at the dawn of Islam?

The Paramagnetic NMR Facility Leiden has been established to provide support to researchers who want to apply paramagnetic NMR spectroscopy to biomolecules. Support is offered in the design and synthesis of paramagnetic probes, either for general application (such as lanthanide tags and spin labels)…

A new Special Issue with Transnational Legal Theory edited by Jelena Belic, Matthew Canfield, Henning Lahmann, Rachel Griffin, and Barrie Sander, brings together a collective of perspectives to unpack the promise and perils of human rights as a vocabulary for governing digital platforms.

A Training and Supervision Plan (TSP) is compulsory for all PhD candidates admitted to the Graduate School.

Researchers at LIACS are working to devise the computers of tomorrow that will be the backbone of the Cloud and Edge computing paradigms as well as the Internet of Things. In this respect, we are involved in research and development of high performance computing systems, embedded & real-time computing…

This dissertation investigates the rural communities of the Cananefates in the period of 50 to 300 AD.

The programme will give you the opportunity to choose from a broad range of topics to study. You will be part of an international multidisciplinary research team at our institute.

By effectively integrating word-class scientific research and excellent business education, you will become a professional astronomer with an internationally recognized MSc degree prepared for technological business challenges.

SciSTIP was established on 1 April 2014 as part of the DSI-NRF Centres of Excellence Programme funded by the South Africa’s National Research Foundation (https://www.nrf.ac.za/). SciSTIP is hosted by the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) at Stellenbosch University and…

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

The Computer Science and Education master specialisation gives you the opportunity to combine computer science research with an excellent education in becoming a teacher.

The two-year Astronomy and High-Tech Innovation master’s specialisation places you at the heart of the latest astronomical discoveries, cutting-edge instrumentation, high-precision measurements, and innovative technologies in advanced instrumentation engineering. The programme is supported by researchers…

Combine research in Computer Science with different aspects of business studies and learn how to build bridges between science and business.

By integrating world-class scientific research and education, you will become a professional physicist with an internationally recognized degree.

Infographic find out who to contact for questions about education LIACS students education Office contacts

Investigating epistemic and ethical practices in medical experimentation on humans in the colonial period in Southeast Asia.

Discover which Bachelor's programmes at Leiden University suit your area of interest.

Discover which Bachelor's programmes at Leiden University suit your area of interest.

The Digital Humanities and Cultural Analytics minor will be offered in the 2026 academic year, and replaces the 2025/2026 Digital Humanities and AI Minor.

By effectively integrating word-class scientific research and excellent education, you will become a professional astronomer with an internationally recognized degree.

Archaeometric analysis of glazed pottery assemblages from the Early Byzantine to the Early Modern periods in the Aegean.

By drawing on the personal experiences of contributors based in different institutions and countries, the articles in this special issue provide a fairly broad overview of ethics practices and concerns in different localities (though not globally, as we had originally hoped), showing, as one student…

Zeger van der Wal, Professor by special appointment Ien Dales Chair at Leiden University, and Mehmet Akif Demircioglu, Assistant Professor ar the Lee Kuan Yen School of Public Policy, researched the effects of ethical culture and ethical leadership on realized innovation.

On the 26th of September, Cosmas Rai Amenorvi successfully defended a doctoral thesis. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Cosmas on this achievement!

Would you like to know more about our research using laboratory animals or our studies on alternatives to animal testing? If so, take a look at the news articles on the right-hand side of the page (for mobile users, see the bottom of the page).

The level of congruence between parties and their voters can vary greatly from one policy issue to another, which raises questions regarding the effectiveness of political representation. We seek to explain variation in party–voter congruence across issues and parties.

This thesis comprises four closely related interpretative studies and set out to answer the compound question: ‘How do teachers interpret their classroom interactions in terms of their pupils’ best interest?’

Isotopic insights on human diet from the later stone age to Neolithic in Northwest Africa, Morocco

Supervisor: S.F. Portegies Zwart Co-Supervisor: A.G.A. Brown

The first index to measure product safety, sustainability, and circularity, operationalising the EU’s (SSbD) framework.

On July 5th, Mulugeta Tarekegne Tsegaye succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Mulugeta on this great result.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), often referred to as drones, have become easy and inexpensive to buy, and it is generally expected that the use of drones by private individuals, businesses and public authorities will increase tremendously in the coming years. This raises questions as to what is technologically…

What kinds of vocal music were not typically transmitted in written musical notation? Can specific ‘lost’ song forms - siciliane, giustiniane, le Grechesche, gli stili “regionali“ nel canto del quattrocento - be more precisely identified than they have been until now, both in musicological research…

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The Plant BioDynamics Lab (PBDL) is a laboratory dedicated to experiments designed to develop and validate quantitative mathematical models of dynamical processes in biology. The principal objective of developing these models is to make quantitative predictions about these processes.

On the 2nd of July, Axel Palmér successfully defended a doctoral thesis. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Axel on this achievement!

The main aim of this dissertation was to provide insight into possible subtle forms of bias in youth socialization by various socializing agents in the Netherlands, and exploring new ways to document bias. Additionally, it addresses the importance of using sound statistical methods for calculating effect…

How public service motivation and professionalism affect decision-making in dilemma situations. Individuals who work in the public sector see themselves confronted with conflicting values, contradictory demands, and the need to serve an at times difficult to define ‘public interest’.

On 16 January 2020, Maaike Wensveen defended her thesis 'Eigen haard is goud waard?'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. P. Nieuwbeerta and Dr. J.M.H. Palmen.

Work placement as a professional development programme for vocational teachers has been widely implemented. This dissertation provides insight into vocational teachers’ learning process in this programme within Chinese vocational education.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the formation and growth kinetics of complexes between proteins and oppositely charged polyelectrolytes.