Leiden will be scientific capital of Europe in 2022. The theme of the festivities was announce on 28 October: Who Knows. After all, does anyone have a monopoloy on wisdom these days? Who decides what is true? And does anyone actually know what the future holds?

Dr Mark Leiser, Assistant Professor in Law and Digital Technologies at eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, has won a grant for research on fake news.

The Van Bergen Fund aims to promote contacts between Dutch and international students in order to achieve a better understanding of each other's cultures. At the Symposium for Diversity and Inclusion the two winners of the Van Bergen Award 2015 were announced.

How can data science improve tax administration? Mark Pijnenburg, a senior data scientist at the Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration, decided to investigate this in a dissertation. He talks about his experiences: 'Sometimes a technique is scientifically interesting, but not applicable in real…

About 15 km to the south of the ancient city of Petra, archaeologists from the University of Leiden have discovered an impressive network of ancient water conservation measures and irrigated field systems.

To mark its 75th anniversary, the Netherlands War Graves Foundation is publishing a portrait of a war victim every week this year. On 24 January the drawing of Irawan Soejono, a Leiden student and Indonesian resistance member, was unveiled at the Groenesteeg cemetery in Leiden, the place where Soejono…

Leiden archaeology is booming. Our archaeologists take part in major international projects covering not only the Netherlands but large areas of the globe. Caspar Reuvens (1793-1835) was also keen on this division: he had one foot in the Netherlands and the other in the Mediterranean world.

The Dutch conservative VVD party plans to make the right to family reunification more difficult for people with temporary residence permits. In Germany, this restriction led to several lawsuits which were won by status holders. Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor in Migration Law, believes this is a…

Just as some people today dislike English influences on the Dutch language, in early modern times people also criticised the Frenchification of Dutch. But to what extent did French actually leave its mark in our language? PhD student Brenda Assendelft made a surprising discovery. PhD defence 24 May.

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies is proud to announce a fortified partnership with the International Bar Association to annually stage the largest moot competition focused on international criminal law: The International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition.

The first day of the Online Well-being Week covered the topic of your mental health. And more specifically, how to not be too hard on yourself and how you might feel in these weird times.

Nurturing Student Creativity: Innovative Approaches to Sharing Scientific Results. Bridging Generations and Empowering Ethical Exploration in Anthropology Education

An exhibition at Oude UB takes visitors to the historical Silk Road. Old maps, clothes and jewellery reflect the rich heritage of the cities of Central Asia and their inhabitants.

To mark the university’s 450th anniversary, the Leiden Discoveries science route has been updated and was relaunched on the Night of Discoveries. New signs in town and a revamped website tell Leiden residents and visitors the stories of the city’s spectacular discoveries.

A KIEM grant was recently awarded to a diverse group of Leiden researchers, aiming to organise an interdisciplinary conference with the title ‘Ancient Religions and the Materiality of Danger’ in 2026. The topic of the conference marks a shift towards the study of the role of objects.

From 11 to 21 June 2019 eleven students took part on the Honours summer course Dilemma’s in het migratierecht (Dilemmas in migration law).

Dr. Mark Dechesne, associate professor at the Leiden University Dual PhD Centre (FGGA) will participate asas work package leader in a large new international project on radicalization among young people in Europe.

On Thursday 9 November, Leiden University organized its annual Physics Ladies Day for female high school students. To mark this festive day, we put the spotlight on two female researchers, who talk about their experiences in physics.

Bachelor's students Larissa van Beckhoven, Eeke Brussee and Mirjam de Haan were granted the Speckmann award for their Fieldwork NL report ‘Een Tastbaar Mysterie’ (supervisor: Bregje ter Meer). Alumnus Markus Enk received the Master's Speckmann award for his innovative thesis called ‘Do spirits resist…

Finds uncovered in the east of Germany show that Neanderthals stored and preserved vast amounts of meat and/or temporarily aggregated in larger groups to exploit the spoils

The way age is determined by the IND is being questioned as a result of several court rulings. The problem is that it is difficult to determine whether a young asylum seeker is just over or under the age of 18. So far there is no suitable way to determine exactly how old someone is, Mark Klaassen, associate…

Graduation Ceremony of the LL.M. Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights 2024–2025

The magazine 'De kracht van (on)macht' was published in January 2025 as part of the NWA research project 'Crafting Resilience'. It marks the start of a series of seven publications. This edition focuses safety and security for vulnerable groups in society.

This video accompanies the article "Navigating Discretion: A Diplomatic Practice in Moments of Socio-political Rupture", published in Vol. 14, Issue 4 of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy.

NWO-ALW has funded the project Climate impact on human evolution: age calibration of the ICDP Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP), led by PIs Cor Langereis and Guillaume Dupont-Nivet (Utrecht University).

Mayke Vereijken (ICLON) has been appointed Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

On behalf of the Dutch Research and Documentation Centre (WODC), Mark Klaassen and Peter Rodrigues, both from the Europa Institute, conducted research on the procedure of imposing immigration detention on foreign nationals who have to return to their country of origin.

The list of highly Cited Researchers identifies the world’s most influential contemporary researchers across 21 scientific fields. Prof. dr. W. Jiskoot is cited one out of three in the field of Pharmacology & Toxicology in the Netherlands, and as one of four of all categories in Leiden.

On 3 June, Annetje Ottow (chair) and Hester Bijl (rector magnificus) met the Humanities faculty. Although a physical introduction was preferred, this visit also had to be done digitally.

Math girls Jeanine Daems and Ionica Smeets have received the Mr. K.J. Cath prize during the opening of the academic year in Leiden.

Thomas Bakkum en Tom van der Wel, two PhD candidates from the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, have both won poster prizes at the EMBL Chemical Biology Conference 2018 in Heidelberg.

On 18 February 2023, our esteemed former colleague Robert Louw passed away. Rob was 86 years old.

The master's specialisation in Visual Ethnography offers students the possibility to graduate by producing their own ethnographic film. The films 'Living Art', by alumna Tina Krüger, and 'Across Gender', by alumna Anouk Houtman, have received two awards.

Extreme Scoring, the research project by ACPA PhD Michael Drapkin, calls for increased emphasis on chamber orchestras as a way of preserving the symphonic works of the classical music canon and expanding them to new audiences.

Dr Kosta spoke at the conference entitled 'Academic freedom in action: a step forward in safeguarding democracy', which took place Strasbourg on 13 and 14 November. The conference brought together experts, lecturers and policymakers to underline the democratic mission of higher education and the importance…

Lars Brummel explains in The Conversation that Rutte is a good candidate to counter threats to NATO's cohesion.

On 7 November, we marked an important milestone for our Law and Criminology bachelor's students who celebrated at their graduation ceremony.

The Udhruh archaeological project in Jordan was recently visited by Diala Dabbas for her program ‘Helwa ya Donya’ (which translates to ‘Beautiful Universe’). Helwa ya Donya is one of the most viewed television programs in Jordan and deals with many Jordanian topics, one of which is the current research…

As part of the events to mark the 100th anniversary of the International Labour Organization, the Department of Labour Law of Leiden University has organized a film evening together with Kijkhuis cinema in Leiden.

Rembrandt lived long before audio and video recordings were invented. But a group of researchers has managed to reconstruct his voice. How? Lecturer in Dutch language, culture and literature, Olga van Marion, explains in the latest Science Shot.

The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Dr Jeroen Touwen as Vice-Dean and portfolio holder for bachelor’s programmes at the Faculty of Humanities.

A presentation on the latest developments in artificial intelligence and law, several public lectures on Criminal Justice, and a brand new trial in which Leiden female serial killer ‘Goeie Mie’ was acquitted after all. It was all possible during Leiden European City of Science 2022. Below is an overview…

After three years of hard work, the students of the Honours College Law received their certificates on 22 November at an awards ceremony held at Scheltema.

Yvonne ten Cate (supervisor: Peter Rodrigues, and Marije Meijer (supervisor: Mark Klaassen) were both nominated for the Jaap Doek Scriptieprijs – an award for the best master thesis in the field of children’s rights – and the Hanneke Steenbergen Scriptieprijs – an award for the best master thesis in…

On April 20, sixty participants will take part in LION’s triannual meeting for high school physics teachers, to deepen their knowledge of physics and astronomy and to explore new teaching methods. This edition marks a special occasion, as it is the last meeting organized by Bert van der Hoorn, who will…

On Friday 23 February 2018 from 10:00 till 12:00 the Institute of Immigration Law will host a guest lecture by Germa Lourens from the NIDOS Foundation on unaccompanied minor asylum seekers. The lecture will take place in room C0.06 of the KOG Building.

Djordjo Milovic has won the KWG award for PhD students during the 51st Dutch Mathematical Congress, which took place on 14 and 15 April 2015 in Leiden. Six PhD students were able to present their work during a minisymposium on April 15th.

An international committee has assessed computer science research at all Dutch universities in the period 2009-2014. For its computer science research, Leiden was awarded the ‘highest’ mark (1) for relevance to society.

Friday 25 September, 2015 marks the official launch of Leiden University's Central and East European Studies (CEES) Center.

Marcello Bonsangue will be the new Scientific Director of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) from January 2024. Bonsangue has been appointed for four years. He succeeds Aske Plaat, who led the institute for eight years.