They are big and white, devour energy and could be gathering dust in your department: old, faulty or unused fridges are anything but sustainable. This spring, staff from the Faculty of Humanities swapped 18 of these electricity guzzlers for more energy-efficient models. How did they go about this and…

Mozambican politician and child rights activist Graça Machel will receive an honorary doctorate from Leiden University for her commitment to the rights of women and children in Africa and elsewhere. She will be awarded the honorary doctorate on the Dies Natalis, the University’s foundation day, on 8…

The first hybrid Leiden Research Support Conference – organised for and by research support staff – took place on 27, 28 and 29 September and focused entirely on organising effective research support.

An international team of researchers, including scholars from Leiden University, has received a Seed Funding Grant within the Una Europa network. The project, Democracy and AI, focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence on the functioning of democratic systems.

On Friday, June 28, 2024, emeritus professor Rudy B. Andeweg passed away. His passing marks the loss of an important figure within the field of political science, not only nationally, but internationally. Here we remember an outstanding researcher, inspiring teacher, capable administrator and an involved…

The jury of the Africa Thesis Award is delighted to announce that the 2024 prize has been awarded to Baleseng Maeneche, a graduate of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at the University of the Western Cape, for her thesis 'Media Representations of Male Perpetrators of Violence against Women and Children:…

On Friday 22 March, the Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights research programme held a successful Annual Research Day (Toogdag) in Gravensteen building. This year’s theme was ‘The Concept of Justice in a War Era: The Cases of Gaza, South Sudan and Bosnia and Herzegovina’.

In the coming academic year, the Psychology programme will have 7 teaching weeks per block instead of 8. Also, the exam weeks will be shifted slightly. What will be the impact of this new measure on workload for students and staff?

In a lecture for the University of the Netherlands, Reijer Passchier, assistant professor in constitutional and administrative law, speaks about the state of our democracy. ‘Is it not time to upgrade our democracy?’

We are excited to announce that Marie Schwed Shenker's research paper, co-authored with Dr Eduard Fosch-Villaronga (Associate Professor at eLaw) and Professor Bart Custers (Professor of Law and Data Science), has been accepted for presentation at the 16th International Conference on Social Robotics…

Britain's biggest archaeology magazine has announced the nominees Book of the Year award and this time one of our own has been nominated!

How does audio-visual material shape the identity of people when those people do not own their own land and are being oppressed? Bahar Simsek delved into the effect of film on the Kurdish identity. She will obtain her PhD on 4 May.

Did your colleagues develop an inspiring educational innovation? Or, did you collaborate with teachers and/or support staff to do so?

Researchers Esther Captain, Gert Oostindie and Valika Smeulders have won the Die Haghe Prize 2024. They were awarded the prize for their book The colonial and slavery past of Hofstad The Hague.

Graduation Ceremony of the LL.M. Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights 2023-2024

The Sustainability Monitor 2024 reveals that Leiden University has again taken significant steps to become a more sustainable and future-proof university. Since 1990, its carbon emissions have decreased by 50 per cent and, compared with 2019, its natural gas consumption has dropped by 32 per cent. Its…

On 28 and 29 May, Carlotta Rigotti, postdoctoral researcher at eLaw, held a workshop on fairness and diversity bias in AI-driven recruitment at the annual symposium of the Japanese Society on Artificial Intelligence (JSAI) in Hamamatsu, Japan. The workshop was organised as part of the BIAS project in…

During the 6th edition of the Graz Expert Meeting on Single-cell sequencing technologies in the cardiovascular field, held on September 15 and 16 in Graz, Austria, Jill de Mol from the group of Dr. Amanda Foks from the Division of BioTherapeutics received the award for best poster presentation.

Gianclaudio Malgieri's paper entitled 'The unfair side of Privacy Enhancing Technologies: addressing the trade-offs between PETs and fairness', coauthored with Alessandra Calvi from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Dimitris Kotzinos from Paris Cergy University, is set to be presented at this week's prestigious…

At the EUFEPS Meeting in Vienna, Lianne Stevens and team received the EJPS – Best Paper Award 2024.

Public procurement is not a hot topic for the average citizen. That’s a pity, says PhD candidate Erik Plas, who did research on the fair spending of public money: 'If a council project goes completely haywire, because it costs more than expected, it could even mean that local taxes will have to be r…

Seed funding to summer schools, research collaborations and joint degree programmes: in these ways and more, we’re creating impact as a partner in Una Europa, an alliance of 11 leading research universities. To wrap up the year, we asked six colleagues to reflect on what they’ve achieved through Una…

With the long lockdown, it’s been a hard year for Leiden businesses. How can the local economy bounce back and how can the University help? Two talk shows discussing this were recently recorded in the Academy Building. They will be aired on Unity TV on 28 September and 12 October.

On 5 May we celebrate freedom, a basic human right that should not be taken for granted. We asked international students and staff what it means to them.

Jonathan Todres appointed as Rotating Honorary Chair in Enforcement of Children’s Rights 2024/2025

On 13 March 2024, Carlotta Rigotti, postdoc researcher at eLaw, and Alexandre Puttick, postdoc researcher at Bern University of Applied Sciences, remotely presented the working paper 'Towards mitigating diversity bias of AI in recruitment and selection via value sensitive design' at the ACM Symposium…

On Friday 20 September, the Dutch associations for Privacy Law (VPR) and for Privacy Law Attorneys (VPR-A) announced their annual thesis award winner in a ceremony held in the Lorentz Lecture Hall at Leiden Law School. We are very proud that Kimmy Shah and Hannah Appel, recent graduates of the Advanced…

PhD student Camil Staps is continuing his academic career in Berlin. He receives a Rubicon grant to do research there on demonstrative pronouns.

All students receiving their bachelor diploma in Political Science last week had a reason or two to celebrate. Two of them especially so: they won the annual award for the best thesis in the International Relations and Organisations and the Politicologie/Internationale Politiek programmes. Congratulations,…

Brechtje de Jong, a Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences master’s student, and Ilse de Weert, a Pharmacy student, have won the KNMP Studentenprijs 2024. They received the award for their outstanding academic performance and research internships.

Which questions should you take to HR, and when should you contact the PSSC? How exactly does leave work, and what about career development? In this column, an HR colleague answers a different question each time. Anna is an HR advisor and knows everything about being pregnant while working.

Different groups can have different memories of the same historical event. This can lead to conflict but does not have to. How is this, and how can countries and people reconcile with the past?

Eva Michaels talks about the current international security environment, including intelligence issues with Sir John Sawers in an interview in El País.

Within her research, Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam covers multiple fields of study, like psychology and psychiatry. For this interdisciplinary work she will receive a major private science prize from the Foundation for Interdisciplinary Behavioural Research (SIGO). Why does the Leiden neuroscientist think…

On 21 January, the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) has released two reports on circular economy and urban mining in the Netherlands. In them, together with Statistics Netherlands, they take stock of part of the Dutch ‘urban mine’: how much raw material can we reuse from the electricity grid,…

Op maandag 1 april 2024 stierf onze leermeester, vriend en gewaardeerd collega Dr. Alexander Hendrik de Groot (Sander).

Graduation MIRD Class of 2024: 'The world is better off with students like this'

Matheus Mendes was awarded the 12th Jaap Doek Thesis Prize at a ceremony on 13 December 2024 for his thesis on the right to read. The prize honours outstanding master’s theses in children’s rights.

The US intervention in Venezuela and the country’s ongoing instability pose risks for the Dutch Caribbean. How serious is that threat? ‘Dutch men and women will have to defend our external borders there,’ says Professor by Special Appointment of Kingdom Relations, Wouter Veenendaal.

With which questions do you go to HR, and when should you contact the department Personnel ? What about leave arrangements? And what about career development? In this series, an HR colleague answers a different question every time. We’re kicking off with Elice Schöne, Head of HR at FWN.

On Wednesday, 21 February, a diverse group of students, staff, and representatives from 21 embassies gathered in The Hague for International Mother Language Day. Under the banner of 'a bit of fun and many serious topics,' language took centre stage.

Liselotta Jahnke, Jason Irwin, Rachel Cruickshank and Paula Kovač are the new student members of the Programme Committee (OLC). This committee advises the Executive Board and the Faculty Board of CADS about educational matters, such as determining the Course and Examination Regulations and evaluating…

This Thursday, January 18th 2024, our esteemed colleague Jan Zaanen passed away. Jan was one of our star scientists, larger than life, with an unabashed, boisterous drive for the best of physics at the Institute Lorentz, at the Leiden Institute of Physics and in the full international scientific community.…

Protests against textbooks on trans persons in America and against a reading hour by drag queens in Rotterdam: it has been raining protests recently against people with a gender expression that does not match their birth sex. Why does this evoke such resistance? We asked Professor by special appointment…

More people seeking asylum, overcrowded asylum accommodation and asylum procedures that take years because of a lack of capacity. The current government wants to declare an asylum crisis but what is that exactly and can they just do that?

From 1 January 2022, the procurement thresholds for European tenders are increased. For many colleagues, procurement and tendering does not affect them on a daily basis. That is why Faculty controller Rob van Amsterdam catches us up on the ins and outs of tenders.

How has progress been made on diversity and inclusion at Leiden University over the past decade? Attendees reflected on this at the D&I Symposium 2024: Untold Stories. And in the workshops, students and staff discussed the next steps toward a more inclusive community.

On 31 January 2024, Alex Schilin defended his dissertation ‘United in Distinctiveness: The Institutionalisation of Differentiated Integration in Economic and Monetary Union during the Sovereign Debt Crisis.’ What motivated him to research this specific topic, and how did he tackle this project? And…

Assistant Professor Space Law Tanja Masson-Zwaan appeared as a guest on the Radio Weetlust programme of local Leiden radio station Sleutelstad FM. She talked about, among other things, who does the moon actually belong to and why we all would like to go there so badly.