Leiden University has published its annual report for 2019. The report is a testament to everyone’s hard work and creativity and shows just how much we have achieved together: students, lecturers, researchers, support staff, administrators and supervisors alike.

Good news for international collaboration: the EU’s International Credit Mobility programme has awarded 163 grants to students and researchers from Leiden University and partner universities in 19 countries outside the EU. The grants are for 19 projects that have arisen from existing partnerships.

The corona crisis has had a major effect on research. Sarah de Rijcke, Professor of Science and Evaluation Studies, and her group research the effects of performance evaluation on the work of ocean scientists. The majority of the fieldwork was supposed to be carried out on ships and at marine labs throughout…

The Dutch Prize for ICT Research 2021 goes to Felienne Hermans, associate professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science. She receives the prize for her research on making computer science and programming accessible to a wide audience and for her pioneering role in establishing a new…

Canadian Roméo Dallaire (1946) was UN Commander in Rwanda at the time of the genocide there, subsequently becoming a champion of human rights. He has worked as a researcher at several different universities, and was a senator in Canada for nine years. Dallaire will give this year's Cleveringa lecture…

How can I teach children programming in a playful way? That's the question Felienne Hermans asked herself when she gave programming lessons to children on Saturdays. In March 2020 she launched the Hedy programming language, and with success: 100,000 programs have already been made with Hedy worldwid…

As a result of the current corona measures, attendance at the Opening of the Academic Year on 6 September will be restricted to a maximum of 75 persons. The ceremony can, however, be viewed online by taking part in a video wall.

Nearly eight decades after the liberation of Auschwitz, we continue to learn more about how the Holocaust “happened” in central and eastern Europe. In Prof. dr. Sarah Cramsey’s History MA Research Seminar “New Approaches to the Holocaust in Central and Eastern Europe,” a dozen Leiden students read what…

Leiden or The Hague? Dutch or English? These two questions decide which introduction week new Leiden University students should choose: EL CID, HOP or OWL.

This page contains all relevant information for lecturers teaching in the Astronomy bachelor's and/or master's curriculum at Leiden University.

Our researchers are doing what they can to continue working on their research. How are they managing? We talk to Kimia Heidary, who began as a PhD candidate in business studies on 16 March.

Young Academy Leiden brings together young researchers, gives them a say in policymaking and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration. Chair Tom Louwerse is passing on the baton to Helen Pluut. ‘Sharing your knowledge and experience with colleagues from other faculties and institutes is so valuable.’…

‘Heritage Under Threat’ and ‘The Rooseveltian Century’ are among the 21 best MOOCs for a general public according to New York Magazine.

The people behind the Leiden University Libraries aim to maintain the level of their services to clients as much as possible. They are making thankful use of internet, but not everything can be put online.

All countries have turned into a global no-go zone and in the Covid-19 crisis flying citizens back home is an unprecedented logistical operation. More hidden from view is that helping people is one thing, but getting through to an elusive public with the objective of inducing behavioural change, is…

Inclusive teaching and research, a good reflection of society and a safe and accessible learning and working environment. The new Diversity and Inclusion Work Plan has set the direction of University policy and aims to create a university where everyone feels respected and at home. Diversity Officer…

Born in Hungary and moved to Austria, András Bárány grew up bi-lingual. It undoubtedly ignited his interest in languages. In Leiden, he now researches ditransitive constructions in over a hundred languages, this way taking another step in untangling some basics of human language.

The 2020-2021 academic year has begun. The new academic year may have been opened in a pared-down ceremony, but a ceremony it was nonetheless, with around 150 guests in the familiar setting of Pieterskerk and around 1,000 people watching the livestream. ‘Universities will always exist, however rapidly…

Curiosity is the driving force behind the research of ecologist Michiel Veldhuis. The associate professor investigates ecosystems in relation to climate change in the savannahs of Africa. More and more, he is also looking at social factors such as the influence of population growth. The KNAW rewards…

A Leiden Groningen student team has reached the European finals of the BISC-E competition. In this annual competition students have to come up with a sustainable solution to a major social problem. The team invented Suckerspheres: a natural alternative to the plastic microbeads that are still widely…

At the end of the year we always compile a list of our most interesting, most popular articles from that year. In the crazy year that was 2020 one topic was at the forefront of everyone’s minds: coronavirus. Fortunately, there was also room for other stories.

Leiden University’s Campus the Hague is soon to expand into the Central Innovation District in the centre of The Hague. Plans are under way for a Campus boulevard with a new University building in the area between the Prins Bernhardviaduct and Schedeldoekshaven.

Childcare, no access to labs and extra time for online teaching. These are the main reasons why young researchers at Leiden University have seen a significant drop in their productive working hours since the beginning of lockdown. These are the results of a Young Academy Leiden survey of over 200 early-career…

How are you doing in these strange and unprecedented times? That’s the question we are asking our colleagues in this series. Jasmijn Mioch, for instance, HRM Learning & Development Adviser.

Two radio telescopes in Green Bank, West Virginia have brought together a few remarkable people. A new photo exhibition in the Old Observatory visitor centre gives an insight into the remote community. Due to the corona crisis, the Observatory is not open to the public. That’s why we’ve selected a few…

All first-year bachelor’s students at Leiden will be assigned a student as a mentor and a lecturer as a tutor to help them find their way around their new city and degree programme. The tutor groups, with ten to fifteen students, will also give students the chance to get to know one another.

In the following statement we would like to inform you of a ransomware incident at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) in which your personal information might have been involved. The University of Leiden administrates this institute. Related to the transition to working from home as…

On 24 April it was announced that, following his farewell, archaeologist Professor Maarten Jansen was appointed Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion. Unfortunately, due to the corona pandemic the actual ceremony will have to wait.

Poetry, video editing, musical art: the first installment of the 48 Hour Project, in which students created a piece of art in only two days, has resulted in a wide variety of creativity. For participants, it was a glimmer of light in a rather dark year of lockdowns: “I felt like I was physically there with…

The pandemic has challenged us to revisit the way we structure education and how to reach out to students remotely. It almost seems fitting that a course devoted to a topic so closely related to the context of the corona crisis, that of global health, would explore the possibilities of making the course…

Annetje Ottow, president of the Executive Board of Leiden University, has been the new chair of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus (LDE) strategic alliance for just two months. What does she want to achieve during her two-year chairmanship?

It’s been a turbulent, bizarre and extraordinary year, 2020. Coronavirus turned the lives of everyone at our University upside down. Out teaching, research and all the events that are held in a year: nothing was the same as before. That this affected all of us is clear from the highlights and many reactions…

Young researchers have been particularly affected by the coronavirus measures. They’re concerned about whether they’ll get their PhD or postdoc project finished on time, now their research has been at a standstill for months. What effect will such a delay have at the start of their academic career?…

From 1 August 2018, Alanna O'Malley was appointed as Chair of United Nations Studies in Peace and Justice, focusing on the ‘lesser-known actors’ of the UN: women, the youth, the agents of informal diplomatic networks within the UN and actors from the Global South. This Special Chair has been created…

No decorated signs on an overfull Lammermarkt but instead a video meeting that gradually fills up and the inevitable question of ‘Can everyone hear me?’ The 51st EL CID introduction week began online this week, on Wednesday 5 August. Because of the corona measures, most of the programme has been converted…

On Wednesday 16th of May, 2018, two student researchers of the LAPP, Hanna Leisti and Heidi Kaarto, had an opportunity to take part in the High Level Debate ‘Can the Blue Economy Save Our Ocean?’. The event was organised by the Sky and WWF in the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels with…

Brand-new professor Gerard van Westen works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and drug development. For the new chair in Artificial Intelligence and Medicinal Chemistry, he uses computer models to make drug development more efficient. Our ultimate goal is a virtual human which allows you…

Imagine we could convert the greenhouse gas CO2 into synthetic fuels using sustainable energy. This would enable us to reduce the amount of CO2 and at the same time store wind and solar energy in an innovative way. Chemist Akansha Goyal (Leiden University) is conducting fundamental research to make…

Political scientist Leila Demarest tells about her research to Nigeria’s National Assembly. How do politicians cooperate and how are public resources distributed among the different regions?

The Pilgrims to America exhibition at Museum De Lakenhal inspires reflection. How far do you go in the quest for freedom? It focuses on the Pilgrims’ relationship with the University and which knowledge they took with them from Leiden.

Even if you have a healthy lifestyle, there's a lot to experience and learn during the Healthy University Week, from 26 to 30 October. Health psychologist Andrea Evers is enthusiastic about the week ahead. She tells us about the programme and gives us a taste of her own talk on what the placebo effect…

Can astronomers mitigate climate change? This is what Leiden astronomer Leonard Burtscher and his colleagues discussed at the annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society. For the second year in a row, the meeting was online. And according to Burtscher, it should stay that way. During a special…

From time management and mindfulness to online leadership. Nearly all of the training courses, coaching sessions and introductions offered by HRM Learning & Development are now online. Programme coordinator Jasmijn Mioch and trainee Marleen Zwetsloot explain the options.

Psychologist Aukje Nauta studies what makes people feel better in an organisation. For many, this ‘organisation’ is now the family; for those who live alone, this organisation has disappeared completely. What are the implications and how can a single person deal with possible problems?

When children wean off from heavy medication, they often experience withdrawal symptoms. The severity of these symptoms is often difficult to predict. Pharmacologist Bas Goulooze developed a computer model to determine the best weaning strategy for each child. His research has now been published in…