Cut marks on the bones of bears show that people in North-West Europe used bearskins to keep warm 300,000 years ago.

In this article we share the experiences of a student who used Siggie for Students. The online coaching platform for students that is paid for students at FGGA. Find out if Siggie can be of help to you too.

Former dean and physicist Frans Saris writes in his new book ‘Darwin’s combination lock’ how our culture enabled us to dominate nature and about the corresponding responsibilities. Together with Joris Berkhout he will talk about his book during the This Week’s Discoveries on 27 February.

Leiden University is working on sustainability and should give its efforts more publicity. This is the conclusion of Industrial Ecology master’s students who investigated the extent to which Leiden University is green and sustainable.

On Monday, Minister of Education, Culture and Science Robbert Dijkgraaf attended the start of Orientation Week Leiden (OWL), the introduction week for international students at Leiden University. He welcomed the students and spoke with them about their ambitions and the problems they face.

Besides being a linguist, George Saad is also a photography fanatic. He shares his most beautiful and telling pictures, shot during his field research in Eastern Indonesia.

On 28 February, Marieke Liem, Associate Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, appeared as a guest on the Dutch NPO Radio 1 Brainwash Podcast to discuss the 'big homicide questions' she is trying to find the answers to.

Imagine getting a notification on your mobile phone with your personal code for impending mental health problems or even depression: yellow, orange, or red. Science fiction? Not for scientist Eiko Fried. 'There is a real chance we can prevent some mental health problems before they occur.' Want to participate…

More than 40 years ago, a wrecked merchant ship was found in the Wadden Sea. PhD student Geke Burger looked at this archaeological find from a historical perspective.

People who move most in the afternoon and evening are less insulin resistant than people who move mainly in the morning or spread throughout the day. This makes them at lower risk of type 2 diabetes. These are the results that researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) have published…

Lecture, CHiLL series

As Board Secretary, Corry Donner aims to be a ‘spider in the web’; someone who keeps a watchful eye on and brings together all the different perspectives of the institute’s board. Now she's left her carefully woven web at the university and transfer her tasks to her successor. Last September, we talked…

Callum is from Ireland, Sharitah is from The Hague and Kirsten is from Manilla. The new students taking part in the HOP week from 19 to 23 August come from all corners of the world. The HOP week is the introduction week for students at Leiden University in The Hague. The diversity of the student population…

PhD defence

The Institute of Psychology is committed to play a prominent role in teaching and research at the national and international level.

A Preventive Intervention Team that investigates children with behavioural problems and trains their social skills in order to prevent school dropout and other, more serious problems. This is a strategy that Leiden University and the municipality of Amsterdam have been using for several years already,…

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…

Patients with skin diseases such as eczema and psoriasis, sometimes spend a lifetime searching for the right medication. To help these patients faster and better, scientists across the country are joining forces. The Next Generation ImmunoDermatology (NGID) project, with LACDR professor Robert Rissmann…

Psycholoog Dominique en een student vertellen over hoe Siggie kan helpen als je eenzaamheid ervaart.

Galaxies are often found in clusters, which contain many “red and dead” members that stopped forming stars in the distant past. Now, an international team of astronomers, led by Andra Stroe of Leiden Observatory and David Sobral of Leiden and the University of Lisbon, has discovered that these comatose…

It’s about much more than learning how to write a readable piece or give a presentation that doesn’t send the audience to sleep. The intensive Science Communication Summer School gives young scientists the chance to really make contact with the public.

Pharmacist-clinical pharmacologist Robert Rissmann has been appointed Professor of Translational Dermatology. This extraordinary professorship has been created jointly by the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) and the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) to strengthen their partnership…

Three weeks into intelligent lockdown and more to go. An extraordinary situation in which we are now working from home. How do our colleagues do that? Meet ups 'in the flesh' at the printer, having lunch and coffee in the FSW cafe or conferring live and lecturing in the Pieter de la Court Building are…

China is an important partner of Leiden University. We collaborate with more than 20 Chinese universities and welcome around 400 Chinese Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD students.

From exercises for working more healthily to practical tips about getting a good night's sleep. Students and staff who take part in the Healthy University Workshops on 18 or 19 October will be given tips to suit their personal situation.

Only one in five young people with emotional health problems such as an anxiety disorder receives appropriate professional help. GPs often fail to properly recognise the signals in children and young people, according to psychologist Semiha Aydin. How can we improve this? PhD defence 23 February.

We are pleased to announce a call for papers for a conference focused on ethical practices in medical research and treatment in the colonial and postcolonial context.

In his guest lecture on 22 January André Kuipers took school pupils and students on trip through space. His mission was to interest his young listeners in science and technology.

The Dutch National Student Orchestra will be going on tour again in February. Before that, they will have ten days of rehearsals. The level is high and taking part means a total immersion in music.

Researchers at LUMC are trying to decipher the biological clock. This knowledge can help deal with luxury problems, such as jetlag, but can also counter diseases. Molecular neurobiologist Erno Vreugdenhil explains.

Het is nog lastig in te schatten wat de gevolgen zijn van de aangekondigde bezuinigingen. Een week na Prinsjesdag kan decaan Koen Caminada al wel wat vragen van binnen FGGA beantwoorden. ‘We staan er relatief goed voor, maar de gevolgen kunnen groot zijn.’

Limburg lawyer Roger Cox has caused a legal revolution. With high-profile cases against the Dutch state and Shell oil company, he transformed the law into a tool to enforce climate policy. Leidraad alumni magazine spoke to him about a life defined by radical choices for a better world.

It is with profound sadness that we have learned of the passing of our colleague and friend, Dr Harold M Hays. Harold passed away on Wednesday 20 November, in his sleep, as a result of heart failure.

The Member States of the European Union do not intervene when a Member State disrespects the values of the European Union, Judith Sargentini, member of the GroenLinks party at the European Parliament, said at the annual Europa Lecture on 9 May in the Lorentzzaal of the KOG Building.

Liposomes – nano-sized spheres composed of fatty molecules – are very promising for vaccination. Bio-pharmaceutical scientist Naomi Benne discovered that the immune response in animal models can be steered by varying the charge of the liposomes. She obtained her PhD degree on 8 September for this research,…

For the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, women students and researchers from physics talk about what inspires them about their work. From quantum to cosmology and biophysics, their curiosity about how nature works is what connects these women. What do these 5 scientists want to share…

At the faculty of Governance and Global Affairs we are proud to celebrate social entrepreneurship, which is why we decided to introduce you to an amazing project by two of our students: Kimberly Schoenmaker and Caroline Flohr. Ambitious, driven and incredibly conscious of the corporate responsibility…

The rule of law is crumbling in the Netherlands, lawyer Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You warned in her Cleveringa Lecture.

In dermatology, there should be a high level of multidisciplinary collaboration among institutes and specialists, Professor of Translational Dermatology, Robert Rissmann, will say in his inaugural lecture on 8 July. He is building an infrastructure that will put pre-clinical and clinical skin research…

When Sjoerd van Trigt, a student of International Studies, is not in the lecture hall, you can find him at Rowing Club Asopos de Vliet. He trains there seven times a week. Soon, he will be leaving for a six-month stay in Japan.

There’s a lot that goes wrong in the treatment of patients with PTSD caused by childhood trauma. Endowed professor Maartje Schoorl wants to resolve this by bringing scientific research closer to the practice. Inaugural lecture on Friday 29 April.

Alumna Fleur van Elk graduated cum laude for the research master's program Cognitive Neuroscience and started her PhD trajectory at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. For Humans of Psychology, Fleur talks about studying, working and has advice for current psychology students.

Extremely painful chronic cluster headaches – sometimes referred to as ‘suicide headaches’ – can be prevented by stimulating the occipital nerve in the back of the head, according to research conducted by Professor Emeritus of Neurology Michel Ferrari from Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). The…

On 22 September, LUCSoR alumnus Bas van Rijn successfully defended his PhD dissertation entitled “The Experimental Culture of Afterlife Research: Attempts by Spiritual Animal Magnetizers to Prove Life after Death” at Universität Bern, Switzerland. The PhD project was part of the of SNF research project…

Human trafficking is much more than kidnapping and selling people. Those who commit labour exploitation can, for example, also be sentenced for human trafficking. Criminologist Masja van Meeteren hopes to simplify the complexity of the phenomenon by charting the different forms of labour exploitati…

He started out as a temporary staff member at the CML’s education office, and now – eight years later – Jasper Williams is the institute’s new Director of Operations. In this interview, he talks about entrepreneurship, making a social impact, and playing competitive bridge. ‘I like doing things properly,…

The number of students suffering from stress and anxiety has decreased slightly compared with 2021. But around half still suffer from mental health problems. This is according to the National Mental Health and Substance Use Monitor.

In July 2022 our alumnus Samatar Botan received the news that he had received the NWO Mosaic 2.0 grant. This grant enables him to start a PhD research at our Faculty on the ancient Aksumite Empire, a topic that is close to his heart. We speak with him about his ambitions and drive. ‘I want to know more…

Researchers at Leiden University and TU Delft have combined two techniques that are used to measure the structure of biomolecules, creating a method that is ten times more sensitive.