The life and career of art historian and Leiden alumna Gerdien Verschoor (1963) followed quite a remarkable path before she was appointed director of Camp Westerbork Memorial Centre in 2019. A woman with a deep awareness of historical places, she sees it as more of a series of coincidences, but the…

Inspiration from outside and best practices from inside the University. These were the most important ingredients of the symposium on inclusivity organised by the Diversity Office at Leiden University on 22 November.

Young researchers met this month for the fifth Science Communication Summer School. ‘This is the first time some participants get to meet other researchers who also enjoy science communication. It’s great to see’, says Julia Cramer, one of the coordinators.

Discovering effective new drugs is a long, expensive and uncertain process. Laura Heitman wants to improve this by finding out more about how drugs bind to proteins that play a role in disease. She calls it ‘drug discovery 3.0’. Inaugural lecture on 9 December.

Macrophages – the front line of our immune system – protect us from infections. But in the case of the tuberculosis bacteria, this often goes wrong. The group of Annemarie Meijer from the Leiden Institute of Biology has now discovered that macrophages in zebrafish are better able to eliminate tuberculosis…

The role of culture and diverse knowledge systems needs to be recognized when assessing nature’s contributions to people, a new policy forum paper in Science states. Alexander van Oudenhoven and thirty global experts present a new approach that will increase the effectiveness and legitimacy of policies…

Leiden researchers have found minute movements in the laccase enzyme. This discovery could lead to the development of much more efficient biofuel cells. Publication in Biophysical Journal.

In his biography about Professor Rudolph Cleveringa, Kees Schuyt adds to the image we already have of this famous Leiden professor. The overriding focus is generally on Cleveringa’s protest speech against the Nazis, while his later Resistance work carried much greater risks. And we also shouldn't forget…

It's a no-brainer: of the candidates that you can vote for on 23 May, 14 studied at Leiden University. We asked four of them about their motivation and ambitions. In this article we interview Samira Rafaela, alumna of Public Administration, and Caspar Rutten, who is studying Law.

Urban green infrastructure has the ability to make make cities more sustainable. However, the exact implementation of green infrastructure and the choices that must be made during implementation, are still topic for discussion. In the Future Cities podcast, environmental scientist Joeri Morpurgo chats…

Leiden University has received a €50,000 grant from Open Science NL to develop a roadmap for integrating open science into the strategic priorities of various institutes and translating this into human resource (HR) policies.

Students at Leiden University believe that their study programmes should pay more attention to sustainability. This is evident from a representative survey of more than 550 students, conducted by Leiden University Green Office .

The free AI and Ethics course (in Dutch) is available online to anyone who wants to find out more about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence. One of the eight experts featured in the course is Professor Reijer Passchier. ‘Artificial Intelligence is spreading so fast and has such an impact…

Students at Leiden University believe that their degree programmes should focus more on sustainability. These are the findings of a survey of more than 550 students by Leiden University Green Office.

Children with hearing loss often fail to pick up on nuances in other people’s emotional responses. As a result, they do not always understand what is going on. Yung-Ting Tsou, a PhD student at Leiden University, found that having more knowledge of emotions and social conventions can help them in their…

Funded by a ZonMw grant, the LUMC and the Health Campus The Hague will be working with headache patients on research into the use of an electronic headache diary. This resource can help patients gain a better understanding of their migraine attacks and, together with the physician, produce the best…

Older children more frequently link Black Pete with a black person. Both younger and older children think positively about him. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by Judi Mesman, Professor of Diversity in Parenting and Development.

Microplastics are everywhere: in the ocean, in cooking salt and even in animals. Should that worry us? 'Yes,' said environmental scientist Thijs Bosker during a pop-up lecture in The Hague on 8 September. ‘We really need to do something now, not wait until it becomes an even bigger problem.’

In Montreal, the 34th Meeting of Parties on the Montreal Protocol (MOP), dealing with ozone layer damage, just ended. This protocol is ratified by all countries in the world and is very successful. Shiming Yang, a university lecturer and member of the Leiden University Global Transformations and Government…

Activities of Thalia Hoffman and Basma Hamdy

In an attempt to retain employees and tackle shortages in the labour market, some employers are now prepared to go further in offering attractive employment benefits. Dutch news programme 'Nieuwsuur' has discovered that large international companies, like Uber, McKinsey, and Salesforce, are prepared…

He did an English-taught degree, completed a master’s abroad and now teaches on an English-taught programme at Leiden University College The Hague. Jan Meijer is the definition of an international researcher and he’s proud of it.

Scholars interested in European law attended a conference in Praag to present their research, exchange ideas and reconnect with colleagues and friends. As Vice-Secretary General of the ELU-S, Martijn van den Brink played a crucial role in organising the conference.

Societal challenges call for a resilient society. In taking steps towards a more resilient society, friendships play a major role. But how exactly do friendships relate to resilient behavior? In Dutch opinion magazine Vrij Nederland, Anne-Laura van Harmelen (professor Brain, Safety and Resilience at…

What’s it like to be Rector Magnificus in the current climate? Sarah de Rijcke spoke about this on the radio. She has been at the helm of Leiden University since the start of this year, at a time when academic freedom is under increased pressure.

Researchers, policymakers and funders have to take more account of the effect of sex and gender in scientific research. This is the view presented in an advice paper published by LERU, the League of European Research Universities. The lead author is Vice-Rector Simone Buitendijk.

After a lobby lasting many years, the Dutch government has decided to finance an independent study of the war of decolonisation (1945-1950) in the former Dutch East Indies. This is partly due to the work of Professor of Colonial and Post-Colonial History, Gert Oostindie, Director of the KITLV. ‘The…

Strong on substance, a good sense of humour and also a bit chaotic. This is how colleagues describe Suzanne van der Pluijm. She started as the new Executive Director at the Faculty of Science on 1 June. Who is Suzanne and what does she stand for? Get to know her in seven questions.

The annual conference of the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) interdisciplinary research programme will take place in The Hague on 7-9 June. Why should you be there? ‘The problems in the world affect us all. This conference will be looking at planetary governance’, says programme…

Leiden heritage expert Sjoerd van der Linde is carrying out research on the heritage of the Caribbean region. This research forms part of the international Nexus 1492 project on the consequences of colonisation for the Americas. ‘We first have to find out what the local population wants.'

This article studies the securitization of immigration in the United States of America (U.S.), through the analysis of the National Security Strategies (NSS) published between 2002 and 2017, using a two-layered analytical framework that combines securitization theory and agenda setting theory.

On the 23rd of June Arianna Sacco successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Recently, a paper by Peter Grünwald was published in the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Grünwald is full professor of Statistical Learning at the Mathematical Institute and senior researcher at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica.

How can we increase the openness and reproducibility of quantitative research? This was the central theme of a workshop on openness and reproducibility, organised by the Center for Open Science (COS) on 2 November 2016.

Nadia Bouras will give the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture on 6 March. She will call for academic freedom for everyone.

Andrew de la Haije is Director of the Dutch branch of Xebia Consultancy Services, an internationally operating consultancy agency that coaches companies through digital transformation. He followed the executive master’s programme in Cyber Security and graduated with distinction.

How can we supply the growing world population with sustainable energy? At Laurens College in Rotterdam, Prof. Marc Koper speaks with the students about the crucial role of chemistry in the energy transition. Guest classes like this are a good way for school students to learn about the academic world,…

‘Academics have descended from their ivory tower, but there’s still too little action or financing.’ Leiden professor of Science Communication Ionica Smeets saw all her wishes come true on 28 January, with the presentation of the Letter to Parliament sent by Minister Van Engelshoven of the Ministry…

Commercial MRI systems cost millions of euros to purchase and require highly trained technicians to operate. Prof. Andrew Webb works on accessible MRI techniques that offer new opportunities in both developed and developing countries. Webb is a professor at the Radiology Department of the LUMC and,…

Public authorities fail to inform citizens, or inform them too little or too late, about the use of algorithmic profiling in administrative decisions. This is clear from research conducted by Anne Meuwese and Fatma Çapkurt on the legally and practically responsible use of profiling algorithms.

Historians and experts in American studies from Leiden University are holding an online international conference about the arrival of the Pilgrims in America and the consequences for the indigenous societies. We asked four questions to two of its organisers, American Studies expert Joke Kardux and historian…