The two-year master’s programme in Computer Science at Leiden University offers seven specialisations ranging from AI to Bioinformatics and Data Science. The programme combines excellent theoretical teaching with possibilities for applied work with industrial relevance.

The research presented in this thesis concerns one of the most important questions in software engineering of our time: how can we make sure that software is free from memory safety bugs?

In the spirit of 'unity in diversity', our objective is to promote insight into and appreciation for the wonder that the same physical laws and mathematical concepts apply to the whole of nature, from the largest to the smallest energy and length scales. We strive for the application of abstract theoretical…

Computational thinking, programming, and algorithms form the basic of many of the things that are shaping our world, the way we work, interact, organize ourselves, and even spend our free time with social networks, streaming media, and games. And this transformation is far from being complete, it is…

Are you thinking about studying Computer Science? Learn more and watch the videos. Note: As of September 2025 you can also combine this master programme with the Business Studies specialisation.

Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS)

PhD candidates carry out a programme of independent research and additional (limited) course work, culminating in production of a PhD thesis in typically 4 years.

The master's specialisation Data Science: Computer Science at Leiden University provides students thorough knowledge and understanding of statistical and computational aspects of data analysis, including their application in databases, advances in data mining, networks, pattern recognition, and deep…

LIACS is partner in the project 'Stereotyping in Computer Science.' The project is a collaboration between multiple universities and the Dutch national expert organization on girls/women and science/technology (VHTO), which will investigate the stereotypes that children hold about computer scientist…

We are becoming ever more dependent on automation systems in our daily lives. Computer Science is more than programming; you integrate maths and logic into the development of systems and solutions that can be applied in all fields - from business to healthcare.

The Leiden Computational Network Science Lab (CNS Lab) researches methods for knowledge discovery from real-world network data.

Met de bachelorspecialisatie Informatica & Economie aan de Universiteit Leiden leer je waardevolle inzichten in de economie te combineren met (programmeer)vaardigheden en kennis uit de informatica.

The master’s specialisation Computer Science and Science Communication and Society at Leiden University bridges the gap between experts and the public by combining high quality research in computer science with extensive training in science communication.

The master’s specialisation Computer Science and Education at Leiden University prepares students to teach the subject of biology to secondary school students. The programme comprises a one-year Computer Science component, followed by an education component in the second year.

Research in the natural computing cluster covers theoretical foundations, the development of new algorithms, and interdisciplinary applications of natural computing methods.

Digital technology is changing academia and society at lightning speed. LIACS is in the midst of this with groundbreaking research into data processing and artificial intelligence (AI). It conducts a unique combination of fundamental and applied research into major issues facing academia and society…

Research in the natural computing group covers theoretical foundations, the development of new algorithms, and interdisciplinary applications of natural computing methods.

Leiden has a strong tradition in theoretical physics, thoroughly linked with experimental disciplines.

Computational linguistics uses computational methods to help answer linguistics questions across a variety of topics.

Theoretical linguistics seeks to understand the underlying principles of the nature of human language.

The worldwide race to the quantum computer is in full swing. This computer can take on computing tasks that we can only dream of today, such as finding proteins that can be used as medicines in seconds flat. Leiden physicists have discovered how the Majorana particle can be used as a building block…

Promotor: Prof.dr. S. Haring

Studying the underlying principles of the nature of language.

The Computer Systems, Imagery & media (CSI) research programme performs research on methods and techniques for the design, implementation and application of advanced computer systems, in particular parallel, distributed and embedded computer systems.

The main goal of the THEOR CHEM group, headed by Prof. Geert-Jan Kroes, is to characterize, and to accurately predict the outcome of chemical reactions at gas-solid and liquid-solid interfaces. Here the solid surface is typically a metal or an ice surface. These goals are important to many areas in…

The Leiden Centre for Theoretical Philosophy (LCTP) is a platform for analytic philosophy in a broad sense at Leiden University. Its members do research in philosophy of science, philosophy of logic and metaphysics, with a keen interest in the history of topics such as mind, knowledge, truth, and ti…

This thesis is a collection of theoretical works aiming at adjusting quantum algorithms to the hardware of quantum computers.

The master’s specialisation Research in Theoretical Physics prepares you for a PhD position in theoretical physics. The research entails a broad range of topics including High Energy Physics and Particle Cosmology, Theoretical Physics of Life Processes and Condensed Matter Theory.

Beowulf clusters looking for new frontiers.

The first book ever on information-theoretically secure multiparty computation

The research programme Formal Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics brings together LUCL researchers who focus mainly on formal theoretical and experimental linguistics.

This dissertation investigates Extended Lexical Units (ELUs), elements that are bigger than just one word and which are stored in the Lexicon.

Describing a new language for the first time is an exciting and challenging intellectual experience.

On 27 November 2015 Prof. Dr. Grzegorz Rozenberg receives his sixth Honorary Doctorate.

On Monday June 15 Prof. Dr. Grzegorz Rozenberg received his fifth Honorary Doctorate.

We see computer programming as an essential skill. It enables you to be self-sufficient in building tools, processing data, visualizing research output, communicating research results, etc. Moreover, it empowers you to make beautiful things.

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.

Projects within the theme ‘Computational Biology’ aim to employ mathematical or computational dynamical modelling approaches to discover novel concepts that are important for drug development.

In this theme you will be supplied with a firm background in the core of current computational linguistics and a solid comprehension of its neighboring fields.

This dissertation focused on computational methods based on first principles calculations using the Density Functional Theory (DFT) framework. Emphasis was laid on affordable methods that can provide a tradeoff between computational expense and accuracy.

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This thesis covers several aspects of quantum algorithms for near-term quantum computers and its applications to quantum chemistry and material science.

Promotor: F. Arbab

In this work we describe three methods to improve the performance of Quantum Field Theory calculations.

The master's specialisation Bioinformatics at Leiden University focuses on research, development and application of computational tools and approaches for expanding the use of biological, medical, behavioral and health data.

We investigate reaction systems, a novel computational model gleaned from the biochemical reactions taking place in living cells and information processing in nature.