The roof of the lecture halls at the Faculty of Science was fitted with solar panels in June, making it the biggest solar-panel-covered roof in Leiden.

Festival

Join-in courses zijn MA-cursussen over middeleeuwse onderwerpen gegeven binnen vastgestelde MA-programma's van de zes deelnemende universiteiten van de Onderzoekschool. Op aanvraag zijn deze vakken toegankelijk voor studenten van andere (Nederlandse) universiteiten. De cursusbelasting en het aantal…

Why do sexual violence policies still fail to systematically address men and masculinities, when the need for cultural change among men has been central in public debates since #MeToo?

What are best practices for teaching students to engage with 'wicked' problems?

A discovery made in Leiden helps not only to make natural gas from CO2 but also to store renewable energy. Research by Professor Marc Koper and PhD student Jing Shen shows how this process can be implemented in a cost-effective and controllable way. Nature Communications, 2 september 2015.

It must be there. We just cannot see it: mysterious dark matter and dark energy in the universe. Henk Hoekstra is one of the many cosmologists who would love to know what exactly these substances consist of. He has received a European research grant of 1.3 euro million to find out.

In-use stocks of products can be considered as intermediaries between human needs and the physical world.

The University is taking part in the National Warm Sweater Day on 10 February and the heating will be turned down in many buildings. Make sure you wear something warm!

We are doing all we can to save energy at the university. Find out how you as a member of staff or student can do about energy and help reduce CO2 emissions.

Curious about how sustainability fits into our university's strategic plan, or how much energy and water we consume? Read about it here.

With the energy transition toward a renewable energy supply and a CO2-neutral economy, electrification of the energy system is rising in importance, which leads to the challenge of long-term storage of renewable electricity.

Duurzaamheid op de campus, energietransitie, groen, circulair

From the energy transition in Namibia to sustainable jobs for young Nigerians, from African cookbooks to vodcasts on vintage Swahili booklets: during a recent visit by the Executive Board, staff from the African Studies Centre Leiden and the African Library presented their research, teaching and acquisition…

The organ in the Great Auditorium in the Academy Building has been played at walk-in concerts and University celebrations since 1998.

Research at the BPOC/SSNMR group is comprised of the following research themes:

A soap film with chemically distinct sides: it's the latest breakthrough in the research led by chemist Sylvestre Bonnet. This unique soap film, along with an innovative device capable of continuously producing new soap films, forms a crucial piece in the puzzle for the development of artificial pho…

From a meaningless block of plastic to an advanced component that contributes to the energy transition. The technicians and scientists of our faculty think it out in detail and make it a reality. This special project shows that they need each other.

Theorists have recently made substantial progress in simulating reactive molecule-metal surface scattering but still face major challenges. The grand challenge is to develop an approach that enables accurate predictive calculations of reactions involving electronically excited states with potential…

The probability for dissociation of molecules on metal surfaces, which often controls the rate of industrially important catalytic processes, can depend strongly on how energy is partitioned in the incident molecule. There are many example systems where the addition of vibrational energy promotes reaction…

Before the large scale use of renewable energy sources can be implemented in our society, the storage of electrical energy needs to be tackled. Storage the energy as hydrogen via the reduction of protons is a good option.

As a virtually inexhaustible source, solar energy plays a major role in future global energy scenarios.

NimbleAI aims at solutions for ultra-energy efficient and secure neuromorphic sensing and processing at the edge.

Promotor: E. Bouwman, Co-promotor: S. Bonnet

On 20 March 2019, Tim Dekkers defended his thesis 'Mobility, Control and Technology in Border Areas: Discretion and Decision-making in the Information Age'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. J.P. van der Leun en Prof. dr. M.A.H. van der Woude.

Almost three years after receiving her honorary doctorate, Dr Graça Machel returned to Leiden University. Over the course of two days she spoke with students, researchers, and other interested persons, about human rights – particularly those of women and children – in a world in which these are continually…

Speeches and speech acts have been crucial in settling the question at the centre of every political debate: who gets what, when and where?

While African ground-based air quality measurements have struggled to gain national and continental footholds, satellite data, especially high-resolution measurements from the TROPOMI satellite, can provide not only continental coverage but lend new insights for regional to city-scale air quality issues…

What is Leiden University doing to make its buildings future-proof and independent of fossil energy?

The chemical industry must continue to innovate for a more sustainable, healthier society. The reseachers from the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) contribute by applying their knowledge to themes such as sustainability, energy and health.

An effective and equitable approach to resource conflicts?

Humanity stands at a pivotal juncture, facing the dual challenge of environmental sustainability and rapid population growth, projected to exceed 11 billion by century’s end.

Just as in phase 1, phase 2 of the Gorlaeus Building will focus on sustainable building.

On a structural level, the properties featured by a majority of mechanical metamaterials can be ascribed to the finite number of soft internal degrees-of freedom allowing for low-energy deformations.

The research presented in this thesis makes use of small molecules (as H2 , D2 and O2 ) on well-defined single crystal surfaces (flat Pt(111), flat Cu(211) and curved Pt(111)) to elucidate the role of surface structure and degrees of freedom in the reactant in specific surface reactions.

Electron microscopy has become an extremely important techniquein a wide variety of elds.

Plants could be regarded as small chemical factories, which produce chemical substances via photosynthesis. If we can imitate photosynthesis in an artificial system, we can make clean fuels and materials out of sunlight and CO2. Huub de Groot is very close to designing a system of this kind.

Leiden University is working on a green, circular campus, with a significant reduction in energy consumption by 2050 as its goal, as elaborated in the Route Map Energy Transition Buildings, published in 2022.

Methods for accurately computing the interaction of molecules with metal surfaces are critical to understanding and thereby improving heterogeneous catalysis.

Digitalisation can make a huge contribution to a greener future, but it must also be as sustainable as possible. To make significant progress, more collaboration and national leadership will be needed. Leiden University has therefore signed the Digital Sustainability Manifesto, which was presented on…

Environmental researcher Paul Behrens generated both international as national media attention with his recent publication in Nature Energy. The media included Science Daily, Quartz and the Dutch financial newspaper Financieel Dagblad. In his publication, Behrens warns for possible power disruptions…

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2019, as well as special appointments and royal distinctions.

Netherlands and China can learn from each other to handle household and livestock wastewater more sensibly. In the FOREWARD project, scientists from Leiden, Wageningen, and China are working together with local partners on feasible solutions that advance the environment, health, and economy.