The Leiden astronomer Huib van Langevelde) has been selected as the new director of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The EHT is a collaboration involving about 350 scientists from 18 countries. It combines the ALMA array in Chile with sub-millimeter telescopes around the world and published the first…

On Friday 24 March, Prof. Amanda Perry-Kessaris (Kent Law School) will deliver the monthly Leiden Socio-Legal Lecture.

It doesn't happen every day that the research project of a first-year bachelor’s student results in a scientific publication. And not only that, but as first author and on the cover of a leading physics journal. ‘We have given our lab education a thorough overhaul and it is paying off.’

Are you interested in taking up an extra challenge during your Astronomy master’s programme? Have you thought about applying for our Summer School programme or are you interested in developing your personal leadership style?

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,…

Are you interested in taking up an extra challenge during your master’s programme? Have you thought about applying for our Summer School programme or are you interested in developing your personal leadership style?

Are you interested in taking up an extra challenge during your master’s programme? Have you thought about applying for the World Teachers Programme or are you interested in developing your personal leadership style?

What is the Fine Mechanical Department?

Protoplanetary disks are the gas and dust environments where planetary systems form around young stars. Using observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) this thesis analyses the gaseous molecular reservoir, using multiple tracers to resolve the 3D structure of protoplanetary…

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Franx, Co-Promotor: Rychard Bouwens

Wil jij meer te weten komen over wetenschappelijke onderwerpen op een gemakkelijke manier? Beluister dan deze podcast. In elke aflevering beantwoorden we samen met een wetenschapper jouw prangende wetenschapsvragen!

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. van Dishoeck, Co-Promotor: G.J. Herczeg

The directorate of Leiden Observatory consists of the Scientific Director, the Director of Education and the Director of Operations.

The intracluster medium (ICM) is a hot, tenuous and X-ray emitting gas that pervades galaxy clusters.

Today, everybody and everything produces data. People produce large amounts of data in social networks and in commercial transactions. Medical, corporate, and government databases continue to grow. Sensors continue to get cheaper and are increasingly connected, creating an Internet of Things, and generating…

The Sun and all the stars in the night sky reside in the Milky Way galaxy. In the at-rest reference frame of the Galaxy, typical stars travel with velocities of about 100-200 kilometres per second.

This thesis describes the implementation and on-sky demonstration of high-resolution integral-field spectroscopy for extreme adaptive optics systems that are used to find and characterize exoplanets.

In the past decade many population studies have been performed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to understand the bulk properties of protoplanetary disks around young stars. These population studies mostly consisted of low mass stars, with relatively few of the disks around…

This thesis investigates the evolution and fate of gaseous exoplanets, which are continuously shaped by stellar activity across both short and long timescales.

A plasma is an ionized gas with very low electrical resistivity. As such, magnetic field lines are 'frozen in' and move with the fluid. Magnetic field lines that are linked, knotted and tangled, cannot be undone by the fluid motions.

Forming at the nodes of the Cosmic Web and growing hierarchically via mass accretion, galaxy clusters are the largest virialized halos in our universe, composed of dark matter (DM; ≥85%), ionized hot plasma in the intracluster medium (ICM; ≥10-15%), and galaxies (≥1-5%).

The programme’s courses deal with current approaches in material culture theory, analytical methods and techniques employed in artefact studies, and experimental archaeology.

After years of development, the moment has finally arrived: a massive cryostat, a highly advanced freezer that keeps the sensitive components extremely cold, has arrived in Leiden from Zurich. The device is the largest component of METIS, one of the first instruments for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope…

Experimental research

Astronomers want to understand the Universe, from the Big Bang to the present day, and what the future will hold. In Leiden they focus on two key questions: ‘How did stars and planets originate’ and ‘How were galaxies and black holes formed in the young Universe?’ A new generation of telescopes – just…

Basketry, cordage and textiles made of plant fibers or bark are rarely preserved in the archaeological record. By means of experimental archaeology and microwear analysis, we obtain indirect evidence about this important craft.

The programme offers you the ability to combine experimental research with theoretical courses. The programme helps you grow into an independent and skilled physicist.

Promotor: J. N. Kok, Co-promotor: A. J. Knobbe

On May 31st, Bobby Ruijgrok succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Bobby on this great result.

Welcome to the Hensen Lab! We are a young dynamic experimental research group starting at the Leiden Institute of Physics. Our lab addresses one of the key challenges of modern physics: understanding the interface between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

The overall theme of this thesis is to complement the electrochemical data acquired in fuel cell research with in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS).

Dissolution processes – next to aggregation processes - play an important role for fate prediction and environmental risk assessment of metal-based nanoparticles (MNPs). It is challenging to predict the kinetics of the dissolution process of MNPs in complex systems such as we can find in in vivo and…

The ultimate goal of the PhD program is the preparation and successful defense of a PhD dissertation.