In this dossier you can read about Leiden University’s commitment to sustainability.

How do plant defense genes get activated?

Promotor: C.W.J. Beenakker, Co-Promotor: A.R. Akhmerov

Advanced sensing techniques require graphene with high quality and well-controlled surface chemistry.

The elementary excitations of magnets are called spin waves, and their corresponding quasi-particles are known as magnons. The rapidly growing field of Magnonics aims at using them as information carriers in a new generation of electronic devices, (almost) free of electric currents.

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 rapid advances in imaging technology enable to see inside the body with ever increasing detail.

In this thesis, time-lapse fluorescent microscopy plays a pivotal role in investigating functional materials within living cells as well as the migratory behaviour of neural progenitor cells.

The guardian of our genome, the protein MutS, scans the DNA for spelling errors and makes sure they are corrected. An essential process for our health. Researchers at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) have discovered precisely how this protein works by making MutS visible with cryo-electron microscopy.…

Α-synuclein, a protein associated with Parkinson’s disease, proves to bind with membranes in a surprisingly efficient way. It confirms scientists’ suspicion of the protein’s leading role in the transmission of neurotransmitters between nerve cells in the brain. Publication in PLoS ONE.

Chemical reactions go hand-in-hand with an energy exchange with the environment in which they take place. Surfaces offer a variety of energy dissipation channels, constituted by the nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom of the atoms at the interface. Aiming at an improved future harvesting of energy,…

Artificial photosynthesis aims to produce fuels from solar energy using chemical processes. In semi-artificial photosynthesis, a hybrid approach is taken using both chemical and biotechnology components. We are developing hybrid systems, coupling light-harvesting nanoparticles to redox-enzymes (oxidoreductases)…

An environmental and palaeo-economic reconstruction.

Research report January 2020. Supported by the lectorate ‘Music, Education and Society’, research group ‘Making in Music’, Royal Conservatoire The Hague

This perspective addresses four challenges facing theorists whose aim is to make quantitatively accurate predictions for reactions of molecules on metal surfaces, and suggests ways of meeting these challenges, focusing on dissociative chemisorption reactions of H2, N2, and CH4.

Promotor: Prof.dr. T.J. Aartsma, Co-promotor: R.N. Frese

An objective of this research was to achieve direct, well-defined and non-rate-limiting electron transfer between respiratory enzymes and the electrode surface by means of 'Q-wires'.

This thesis covers various applications of topology in condensed matter physics and quantum information.

Triplet superconductivity refers to a condensate of equal-spin Cooper pairs (pairs of electrons with equal spin).

Research in the Lemay Lab concentrates on Iontronics: the physics of mixed electronic-ionic charge transport.

The main research theme in the group of Dennis Hetterscheid is to understand and mimic bioinorganic multi-electron processes that are relevant to our future energy infrastructure. Reduction of protons generates hydrogen that can be used as a chemical fuel. Alternatively to gaseous hydrogen, the reduction…

Physicist Milan Allan will build an instrument that will bring superconductivity research further. He has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant of 2 million euros over the next five years. With his PairNoise programme he aims to detect paired electrons as they occur just above the temperature at which…

PhD defence

Physical chemist Rik Mom developed a revolutionary way to investigate catalysts in action in detail. For this work he received the distinction cum laude during his PhD defence on 29 June.

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.N. Kok, Co-promotor: F.J. Verbeek

Our group operates at the cross-roads of different disciplines: molecular and cellular microbiology, biochemistry, structural biology and biophysics. The group harbors expertise in a multitude of molecular and cellular approaches including:

Deficiency of glucocerebrosidase (GBA) underlies Gaucher disease, a common lysosomal storage disorder. Carriership for Gaucher disease has recently been identified as major risk for parkinsonism. Presently, no method exists to visualize active GBA molecules in situ. We here report the design, synthesis…

We study cell-fate decision-making using embryonic stem cells as a model system. Stem cells integrate a large number of cues to direct their development into a great variety of cell types.

Cathodic corrosion for producing nanoparticles was (re)discovered when trying to control the electrochemical etching of a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tip.

Formulation of biopharmaceuticals

Discovery of metastasis promoting candidate drug targets

Leiden physicists have managed to detect a single molecule called dibenzoterrylene in a new crystal, and found that it is a candidate component for a quantum network. Future quantum computers will need such a network to work together while maintaining their advantages. Publication in ChemPhysChem jo…

We review the state-of-the-art in the theory of dissociative chemisorption (DC) of small gas phase molecules on metal surfaces, which is important to modeling heterogeneous catalysis for practical reasons, and for achieving an understanding of the wealth of experimental information that exists for this…

Can process-oriented dynamic testing be applied to everyday educational practice?

This project explores the decline of shifting cultivation in Northeast India. What is the impact on society of people’s deepening engagement with markets and the state?

Leiden physicists are helping Wageningen plant researchers to study unpredictable plant embryos. For this, they are using a novel two-photon fluorescence microscope, aided by a 30 thousand euro ZonMW grant.

We find ourselves in an era of transition, not just towards a more computing- and data-driven society but also away from unsustainable fossil fuels as an energy source.

Truth is stranger than fiction. In 1997 Juan Maldaceña discovered a remarkable dictionary that translates equation for equation the physics of black holes in string theory into the more conventional physics of quantum mechanics of interacting particles. The remarkable possibility exists that…

Protein–protein complexes are formed via transient states called encounter complexes that greatly influence the formation of the stereospecific complex.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Ubbink

List of Support Departments at LION and the Faculty of Science

Geometric phases lead to a nontrivial interference result when an electron's different quantum mechanical paths choices encircle a magnetic coil in an Aharonov-Bohm experiment.

Promotor: R. Gill, Co-promotor: P. Massart

Our world is shrinking, or at least our electronic devices are. From PCs to mobile phones: everything is smaller and thinner. The smaller the chip, the better it can conduct electricity and pass on information.

In this dissertation, the synthesis and characterization of a series of iron complexes based on different ligand platforms are described.

Vera Meester has won the annual Physics Image Award 2016, with her photo of 'smiling' colloids. The Volkskrant published the picture as Image of the Week.

Life Sciences Artificial Intelligence Data Science