Dr. Rosalien van der Poel succeeds Lonneke Regter as Institute Manager of the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA). Together with prof.dr. Henk Borgdorff, scientific director ACPA, she constitutes the board of ACPA since 15 November 2017.

Professor of Clinical Pharmacology Adam Cohen from Leiden University received the prestigious Dr. Saal van Zwanenberg Honorary Prize on 12 November. The prize honours a scientist who has distinguished themselves in the field of research that has directly or indirectly led to the development of new medicines…

The Citizen Science Lab proudly looks back on a successful first edition of the Expeditie Stadsnatuur Leiden. On the 20th of June, we concluded the Expedition with a festive handover of the results to Ashley North, Alderman for Climate, Mobility and Finance, and with a market organised for and by lovers…

The annual Hugo Sinzheimer Moot Court competition took place in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 19 to 21 June 2025. Twelve student teams from various European countries took part in the labour law moot court competition.

On 24 January 2025, a Workshop on ‘Protecting human rights through collective redress’ took place at the Central European University in Vienna. It was organised by Dr Zsolt Körtvélyesi in the framework of a Maria Skłodowska-Curie project on ‘Minority Rights – Towards Effective European Enforcement’.

Dr. Kirsten Leiss and Prof. Peter Klinkhamer received 900.000 euro’s from “Stichting Toegepaste Wetenschappen (STW)” and the company “Rijk Zwaan” to develop plants that are resistant to thrips, a major agricultural pest all over the world.

How can teachers engage students, make them curious and inspire them for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics? These questions were addressed during an international congress that took place from 15-17 April in Leiden, organised by the European science education project Teaching Enquiry…

Alumnus Ruurt Hazewinkel (90) has presented Leiden University with a special gift: a historic house on Leiden’s Rapenburg canal. He handed over the key to Rector Carel Stolker on Monday 25 January.

On 28 June 2017 the Department of Child Law and the Van Vollenhoven Institute of Leiden Law School organized the colloquium ‘Minorities and The Criminal Justice System’, with James Bell as the keynote speaker.

With a headwind of 80 kilometres per hour, pouring rain and freezing temperatures, Jurjun van der Velde cycles down the Oosterscheldekering. On his traditional Dutch bike with back pedal brake, he is the second PhD student from the faculty to win the title.

Verschillende bewoners in de kansarme wijk Poelenburg in Zaandam leven in angst en voelen zich geïntimideerd door de ondermijningsaanpak van de gemeente, waarbij misstanden als huisbetredingen zonder toestemming en achtervolgingen niet worden geschuwd. Fatma Çapkurt, universitair docent staats- en bestuursrecht,…

Genes are active sometimes, and other times they remain dormant for a while. Leiden physicist John van Noort receives an NWO ECHO grant to find out how this happens.

STM scanning experiments on poorly conducting materials are challenging, and can cause a distortion effect. A new model corrects for this effect, allowing physicists to better study materials in their quest to understand unconventional superconductivity. Publication in Physical Review B as Editor’s…

Chuan Zha from China studied International Relations at Leiden University. He comes from Chengdu, a city of more than 14 million inhabitants, but regards the relatively small town Leiden as ‘more cosmopolitan’.

Leiden or The Hague? Dutch or English? These two questions decide which introduction week new students at Leiden University can best choose: EL CID, HOP or OWL.

Lions in West and Central Africa form a unique group, only distantly related to lions in East and Southern Africa. Biologists at Leiden University confirm this in an article published in Scientific Reports.

The MOOC Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Comparing Theory & Practice by Prof. Edwin Bakker, co-developed by the Centre for Innovation, has now attracted over 100,000 participants. It is the first MOOC of Leiden University to reach this magic number.

On 3 May, World Press Freedom Day was held and the Dutch 2022 'Persvrijheidsmonitor' was presented. The safety of journalists in 2022 was the most important theme in the area of press freedom in the Netherlands. Tarlach McGonagle, Professor of Medial Law & Information Society in Leiden, and Otto Volgenant,…

These might be ‘just’ provincial council elections in the Netherlands, but the outcome on 15 March could have serious consequences for how the country is governed. Conflicts between the government in The Hague and the provinces, and tension within the Dutch cabinet, might be looming. On 1 July, every…

This theme is central to the recently published book 'Onze Constitutie' by Wim Voermans, professor of constitutional and administrative law. The colossal book has no fewer than 911 pages, but Voermans has managed to turn it into one very readable book, with fluent pen, with an eloquent tone and, moreover,…

An acute shortage of social care staff means that family members often quit their jobs to care for relatives with severe disabilities. This seems too good to be true – and there is a catch. Barend Barentsen, Professor of Labour law, discusses this on Dutch consumer programme ‘Radar’.

PoreLab is officially opened on November 1st, 2016. This new lab located at the Sylvius Laboratory will be working with the latest DNA analysis technology and will bring science, education and industry together to explore practical applications with the MinION.

Using biologically inspired algorithms on 'edge devices', such as cameras and mobile phones, is what Svetlana Minakova's PhD research was all about. She conducted research on Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN). Making these algorithms work in different situations is a complicated task. 'Most design…

After a period of maintenance, the 'Photographer' telescope is available once again for visits at the Old Observatory.

The Nationale Studenten Enquête 2014, a study of around 73,000 students, has named Leiden University College (LUC) The Hague the best university college in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research has honored the application of Prof. Harry Fokkens for the research project entitled

Although he works for the Deloitte international management consulting firm, Robin Bergman identifies himself as an "artist, designer and researcher". He is fascinated by technology and nature, and the tensions that exist between them.

On November 5, 2021, Guy Livingston will present at an International Colloquium at the University of Lorraine (France), entitled:

Dr. Naomi Truan, Assistant Professor of German Sociolinguistics at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics delivered a lunchtime talk sponsored by the Austria Centre Leiden and the Central and East European Studies. We asked her about her presentation, her research and the state of Central European…

More collaboration, combining data and asking the right questions. These are a few of the recommendations that policymakers and researchers formulated at the conference 'Data gedreven Beleidsontwikkeling' on 28 November 2017.

Children are often able to decide for themselves whether they want to take part in medical research. In order to be able to make an informed decision, they need clear information. PhD candidate Ronella Grootens set a good example and created a cartoon story. PhD defence 6 December.

On 3 March 2022, Cambridge University Press published An Introduction to Public International Law, a co-authored textbook led by Cecily Rose.

On Monday 31 October the Europa Instituut had a special guest lecture by not one, but sixteen leading Russian Human Right Defenders. The Leiden Law School was very happy to host the Russian delegation, at the initiative of the Dutch Consulate General in St. Petersburg.

Physicists understand little about quantum matter, which is a building block of future quantum computers. Theorists have now discovered that black holes with ‘dreadlocks’ harbor a similarly exotic order pattern, which makes calculations on quantum matter easier. Publication in Physical Review Letter…

Start-up ambassador Neelie Kroes launched the new investment fund on 20 June. Erasmus Medical Centre, TU Delft, Leiden University and the regional development agency InnovationQuarter are working together on this initiative.

The European Parliament is set to vote on the approval of the new Commission, and some Parliament members have already expressed concern over the controversial appointment of Olivér Várhelyi to the role of commissioner. Armin Cuyvers, Professor of European Law, discusses this issue in Dutch financial…

Leiden physicist Bernard van Heck is one of the seven young Dutch scientists who will be travelling to the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. Promising young scholars from all over the world have the opportunity to meet with Nobel Prize winners at this famous science conference.

Leiden has been selected as one of ten cities in the European BiodiverCities project. The aim of the project is to increase the quality of life in these cities, for instance by developing a green infrastructure and enhancing biodiversity. The Municipality of Leiden will work together with Naturalis…

The German professor of Information Systems and Statistics Heike Trautmann accepted the Pascal chair this month at LIACS, the computer science institute of Leiden University. Trautmann’s main research areas are evolutionary multiobjective optimisation and data science, in which LIACS is strong as we…

Dr. Moritz Jesse, Associate Professor at the Europa Institute, presented his paper ‘Building Bridges or Erecting Walls? – The Application of Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination in Europe ‘ at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association.

De dagen van demissionair premier Dick Schoof zijn geteld. Met de Algemene Politieke Beschouwingen achter de rug komt een einde aan een ongebruikelijk experiment: een partijloze premier. Hoogleraar staatsrecht, Wim Voermans, spreekt in EenVandaag over een ‘een deerlijk mislukt experiment, eens maar…

Dr. Eduard Fosch-Villaronga, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Researcher at eLaw, received a personal visiting researcher grant from the Research Council of Norway to spend five weeks visiting the University of Oslo.

On 3 and 4 June 2015 a delegation from the biotechnology and biomedicine center in Prague (BIOCEV) visited the Faculty of Science in Leiden, as well as the Netherlands Centre for Electron Microscopy (NeCEN). The delegation was interested to see the potential for collaboration in the field of cryo transmission…

Former PhD student of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) Bart Thomee has received this year’s Rising Star Award from the Multimedia group of ACM, the worldwide computer science association. Today, Thomee is a successful researcher at Yahoo Labs.

De maatregelen die het kabinet voorstelt om het asielbeleid strenger te maken kunnen eigenlijk niet direct leiden tot een lager aantal asielzoekers dat in Nederland asiel aanvraagt. Dit betoogt Mark Klaassen, universitair docent Immigratierecht bij Nieuwsuur.

Daily-adapted radiotherapy can help to more precisely target radiation dose to tumors compared to the current clinical practice, while avoiding radiosensitive organs-at-risk in the surrounding area. A main obstacle however is that new treatment plans need to be created every day, which is a manual and…

The restoration of the Sterrewacht is proceeding well and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. On Thursday 11 March, the highest point was reached with the restored domes being replaced on the roof.

On 10 December Walter Burkard won the Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award 2020 for his thesis on climate change and children’s rights. The prize for the best master’s thesis in the field of children’s rights is awarded every year by Defence for Children and the Department of Child Law of Leiden…

An international team of astronomers has found an unexpected link between dark matter and visible stars in stellar systems. This discovery may even cause us to reconsider our understanding of gravity. They published on their discovery in 'Nature' on 1 October.

The Leiden University Green Office is pleased to announce its Autumn Photography competition, on the theme: Decay.