Dear colleagues and students,

ESA’s space telescope Gaia, which maps the Milky Way, completes its active phase of scanning the sky on 15 January. Over the past decade, Gaia has made more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other cosmic objects. ‘Gaia is already the discovery machine of the decade,’ Leiden…

An extraordinary encounter took place in 1911. American scientists discovered the last 'wild' Indian, from the Yahi tribe, who had lived in total isolation for years. As he had no name, they called him Ishi. But who was this man, and what did this discovery mean to us? Cultural anthropologist Erik Bähre…

Social

Early treatment benefits patients who have not fully developed rheumatoid arthritis but are in the preliminary stages of the disease. This is what researchers from the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) have reported in The Lancet. Patients in the pre-arthritis stage who were temporarily prescribed…

Data Science & AI student Nataliia Bagan combines a passion for mathematics, language, and artificial intelligence. Her exceptional bachelor’s thesis on improving reasoning in large language models earned her a nomination for the Leiden Science Young Talent Award 2025.

ICT

Human resources

Manuscripts that look like a comic book, that's how you could describe the manuscripts of the Dongba people from China. The manuscripts are one of the last examples of a so-called pictographic script that can only be interpreted by Dongba priests, shamans, who have knowledge of the ancient Dongba cu…

Organisation

Betty de Jonge is a household name in our faculty. As the person behind AskBetty, she knew how to answer every question about Office. Starting this month, she has officially retired.

Adults who lost a parent during childhood tend to experience greater attachment anxiety in romantic relationships, according to Carline van Heijningen’s doctoral research. However, this anxiety was less pronounced among those who recall having a strong bond with their deceased parent during childhoo…

The left is gaining more and more ground on the political map of Latin America, with the elections in Colombia as the most recent example. But what’s behind this pull to the left? Professor of Modern Latin American History Patricio Silva talks about the current political situation in the region.

Amsterdam’s attitude to sex work, politeness in historical Arabic letters and malaria in the Middle Ages: again this year, there was a wide variety of topics in the Research Traineeship programme. On Friday 30 August, the trainees finished the last of these projects for now.

Film screening

Do you work from home and are you employed by Leiden University? If so, in addition to your home-working allowance, you are also entitled to an allowance for your internet expenses.

The faculty is always aiming to maintain and improve the quality of our education. To do so, there are several checks and balances in place. Additionally, there are always opportunities to take your education a step further.

Whether it is educational design, practical organisation, the teaching itself, assessment or reflection and innovation - most of what is expected from you as a teacher is part of a bigger process. Some of these processes have strict deadlines, others don't.

Lecturers and/or members of a research group at our faculty, may be asked to supervise BSc or MSc students during their studies and research projects.

If you find a new job or if your contract is coming to an end, there are a number of matters to consider.

Knowledge Festival

Leiden researchers work together with other researchers from across the world. The University has developed a regional policy focused on three specific regions with which we maintain intensive contact through a number of faculties: China, Indonesia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Individual Choices Model offers a number of options for buying or saving additional leave days, or exchanging leave days for extra income.

All University employees and researchers have a personal profile page on the website. This page will show where you work and how you can be reached.

All staff members have their own profile page on the website. These pages include information about your work location and how you can be contacted. Are you looking for a colleague? Type his or her last name, first name, or first and last name in the search bar of the website.

When your contract with Leiden University ends, you may be entitled to unemployment benefits under the Unemployment Act (Werkloosheidswet, WW). You may also be eligible for supplementary unemployment benefits (Bovenwettelijke werkloosheidsuitkering, BWNU).

A small cat with a big personality has captured the hearts of students and staff at the Faculty of Science. The black-and-white Bobby even has his own Instagram fan account. Who are the people behind Bobby ‘the astrocat’? ‘He helps connecting people on campus.’

Sandra Manickam recently joined the Institute for History as a researcher in the ERC Starting Grant project ' COMET. Human Subject Research and Medical Ethics in Colonial Southeast Asia', under the supervision of Fenneke Sysling. Below, she introduces herself.

Together we create a healthy and safe working environment. Should an incident, dangerous situation or needle-stick injury nevertheless occur, please report it immediately. Such incidents are far more frequent than serious accidents. By reporting them we can make sure that they do not lead to serious…

After entering your username and password in Teams, Microsoft 365 and OneDrive, you need to confirm your login through the Microsoft Authenticator app. This is an extra security step (multifactor authentication).

Leiden University invests in a lasting relationship with alumni and partners. Here you will find more information on strengthening these ties and the possibilities for financial support, as well as answers to questions such as: How do I stay in touch with former students? How do I use the alumni database?…

Organisation

Lecture, Byvanck Lecture

On Easter Monday, the spring holiday that commemorates and celebrates returning life, A.G.H. Anbeek van der Meijden passed away. From 1982 to 2005 he was professor of Modern Dutch Literature at Leiden University. To everyone who knew him—whether personally, professionally, through his teaching, or through…

Festival

Lecture, Peace Histories Seminar Series

Each department of our faculty has a different way of onboarding new lecturers depending on your experience and type of teaching responsibilities.

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Lecture