For many years, human rights have mostly been a theme where states constituted the most important actors. Influenced by globalisation and the worldwide integration of the economy, multinational corporations have grown to feel more responsible for compliance to human rights.

Emeritus Professor of Molecular Astrophysics Ewine van Dishoeck has been named a Citation Laureate by Clarivate, a research analytics provider. Clarivate considers her an influential researcher of the calibre to win a Nobel Prize.

The crisis in Iran seems to have settled and both countries are claiming victory. The Americans say that they taught Iran a lesson, but Iran projects the contradictory. Now, who is right? On Thursday 9th January, Bert Koenders commented on this on BNR News Radio.

The Leiden University Centre for Islamic Thought and History (LUCITH) is hosting a two-day conference on the topic of monotheism in medieval Islamic thought.

Recent graduates of the Adv. LL.M. in Air and Space Law presented their paper titled

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, an effort to reduce the country’s reliance on oil, may open up new opportunities for Korea. Spearheading the way is Hallyu — the Korean wave, led by K-pop and dramas as a soft power to open new business opportunities in the Middle East, especially…

LUMC professor and gynaecologist Dick Oepkes was made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion on 15 April. Mayor Henri Lenferink presented him with the medal at the end of on online symposium to mark Oepkes’ retirement.

Jan Erk, political scientist at Leiden University, has been selected as the 2016-2017 Smuts Memorial Fellow at the University of Cambridge. During his residency at the renowned British academy, he will work on his research project ‘The Enduring Impact of Africa’s extinct kingdoms and invisible chief…

A Vici grant and a Science-GROOT: scientists from the Institute of Biology Leiden have been awarded prestigious grants from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). From investigating bacteria without cell walls to harnessing plants with the help of microorganisms.

It was meant as a joke for friends and family. A quick snap of him with his bags packed while watching the exit polls of the Dutch general elections. But the photo of our colleague Ilyasse El Boujadayni soon found its way around the entire country and before he knew it, he was being invited by national…

Research to experiment with bacteria that grow like plants has been granted the NWO XS grant. These bacteria use light and carbon dioxide to grow, and will be designed especially for use in the biotechnological field. Tijn Delzenne and his supervisor Dennis Claessen can spend 50.000 euros on the exp…

A couple of years ago, Dr Amanda Henry noted that she was unable to determine all microremains in her archaeological samples. Herself an expert on starches, she had trouble recognising other microparticles. Seeing the importance of interdisciplinarity, she organised a conference on microremains. This…

Neuroscientist Simeen Tabassi Mofrad has been awarded a Rubicon grant to conduct research on cortical and allelic determinants of age-related cognitive decline at University of Oxford. She holds the first rank among all Rubicon applicants in NWO Domain Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH).

How correct are mathematical theorems? And is all the theory around them correct? To find out, mathematics student Dominique Lawson converted a mathematical theorem into computer language. ‘This allows a computer to understand the theorem and check whether the proof behind it is entirely correct.’ The…

The international astronomy outreach project IAU100 has won the first Communication Award by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The initiative was founded by Leiden team manager Pedro Russo and team members Jorge Rivero González, Bethany Downer, Lina Canas and Marieke Baan.

We congratulate Joost Grootens with joining the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen as a professor of artistic research in visual design.

An international team of researchers with Pascale Ehrenfreund from Leiden University has discovered that the dust particles of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko are made up of even smaller particles. This discovery confirms that clumps of dust form the basis for comets and planets.

Public authorities fail to inform citizens, or inform them too little or too late, about the use of algorithmic profiling in administrative decisions. This is clear from research conducted by Anne Meuwese and Fatma Çapkurt on the legally and practically responsible use of profiling algorithms.

The coronavirus pandemic has had us working and studying at home, and this has had a positive effect on Leiden University’s sustainability results. This is apparent from the university’s new Sustainability Report 2020. The report also shows that nearly all the targets from the Environmental Policy Plan…

On 22 January, 15 inspirational lecturers – including Annemarie Drahmann and Joris Larik from the Institute of Public Law – received the Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO) from rector magnificus Hester Bijl. This qualification is awarded to lecturers who demonstrate strong teaching and didactic skills…

The 2018 IEEE Computer Society PAMI Mark Everingham Prize has been awarded jointly to Wessel Kraaij, Alan Smeaton, Paul Over and George Awad for the “TRECVid Video Retrieval Evaluation 2003-2018”.

The Department of Medical Microbiology at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) is researching antiviral drugs that could treat and prevent SARS-CoV-2 in various projects. One part of the PanCoroNed project is being led by Martijn van Hemert and involves lab tests into the antiviral effect of molecules…

Small, remote islands were long thought to have been the last frontiers of pristine natural systems. Humans are not thought to have been able to reach or inhabit these environments prior to the dawn of agriculture, and the technological shift that accompanied this transition. A paper recently published…

Professor Versteeg is currently Professor of Law at Virginia School of Law in the United States, where she has been working since 2011 as Miller Center Director and Human Rights Program Director at the Center for Comparative and International Law University of the Virginia School of Law.

Two scientific papers in Science deliver new pieces of the puzzle for the reasons of bee decline. Professor Koos Biesmeijer comment on this research in articles in the Dutch newspapers Volkskrant and NRC.

Male scientists owe their position to their brilliance, women to their hard work. Or do they? The Equalista app helps staff and students at the Faculty of Humanities to become aware of gender equality.

As of 1 June 2018 Olaf van Vliet has been appointed as Professor of Comparative Welfare State Analysis at Leiden University. The Endowed Chair in Comparative Welfare State Analysis is supported by Instituut Gak. This chair is embedded in both the Department of Economics (Leiden Law School) and the Institute…

Leiden University is awarding an honorary doctorate to virologist Marc van Ranst. Van Ranst has been one of the main advisers of the Belgian government during the Covid pandemic. German Arabist Beatrice Gründler will also receive an honorary doctorate for her work in the field of Oriental Manuscript…

The world is becoming clogged with plastic, with tiny plastic particles found everywhere, from the oceans’ depths to the mountain tops, soil, plants, animals and even inside us. The question is: what harm, if any, are they causing? In a new article on The Conversation, environmental scientists Meiru…

To check whether the classroom scanners are secure, a ‘pen test’ was performed in the Lipsius building on Monday 28 March. This involved switching on the person counters for a day so that ethical hackers could try to gain access to the system.

The Dual PhD centre has been granted an ICTO-grant for the development of a digital training programme for dual PhD’s.

Two Leiden projects have been awarded Open Science NL funding to make science more accessible to academia and the world outside. The projects will strengthen the open science infrastructure.

Youth unemployment in the Netherlands has risen sharply in recent years, though many vacancies cannot be filled. Olaf van Vliet, Professor of Economics, spoke to NU.nl about the issue: ‘Youth unemployment has consistently been higher than the overall unemployment rate.’

The Leiden Faculty of Science has appointed three new professors. Daniel Rozen, Frank Takes and Matthijs van Leeuwen were appointed on 1 April.

Developing safer alternatives to harmful PFAS filters and seeking new enzymes for medical applications. Two projects with Leiden researchers have been awarded funding through the Dutch Research Council's (NWO) Open Technology programme.

While outer space has been explored peacefully for decades, clear rules on lunar mining are lacking. Space law expert Tanja Masson-Zwaan told the BBC that international cooperation is urgently needed to prevent conflict and legal uncertainty.

Iran is experiencing severe unrest with millions of people protesting against the strict regime. Opponents of the regime are now working on a blueprint for a new Iran, including Afshin Ellian, Professor of Jurisprudence, who appeared on ‘Sven op 1’.

From interpreting in Arabic and a visit to the dentist to a game of hockey. The temporary reception of 123 refugees in the University Sport Centre is running smoothly thanks to the enormous support from staff and volunteers. ‘It’s the children who most need attention.’

In the civil war in Syria, the country's cultural heritage is also under threat. There have been further acts of vandalism in Palmyra and many of the city's museums have been looted. Leiden archaeologist Olivier Nieuwenhuijse's Focus Raqqa project aims to make a digital inventory of the plundered archaeology…

Simona Vezzoli is one of two research officers at the new Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Research Centre Governance of Migration and Diversity. Based at the Leiden Institute for History, Vezzoli is a migration researcher as well as the centre’s new ‘matchmaker’ between researchers of the three universities and…

The Dies Natalis for alumni on 11 February was an online event. Almost 1,000 alumni tuned in to Bastiaan Rijpkema’s interview with Annetje Ottow, who had then been President of Leiden University’s Executive Board for all of three days. Alumni are part of her portfolio on the Executive Board.

Nu in heel Europa rechtse partijen hoog scoren in de peilingen is de verwachting dat de discussie omtrent migratie flink opgeschud gaat worden. Desondanks maant hoogleraar Sarah Wolff tot kalmte.

Sergei Boeke has once again proven that there are more roads than one that lead to Rome with his PhD research into al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. It is both the core point of his conclusions as well as the leitmotiv for his approach. Boeke’s dissertation is comprised of five academic articles that…

Paul Wouters came to the Faculty of Science for a few months to help with organising day-to-day issues after the previous dean left. This has involved rather more than he expected. ‘I can now really understand why every faculty has its own dean.’

Carmen Gonsalves has been the Dutch ambassador to Chile since this autumn. She studied history in Leiden. How useful has her degree been and what’s it like to be an ambassador? ‘Diplomacy is fascinating.’ We spoke to her just before the presidential elections.

Big celebration upcoming weekend: MIRD's 20th anniversary is on the cards. Four alumni from different periods tell what this unique two-year master's in International Relations and Diplomacy has brought them.

Her book ‘Veel valse hoop’ (Much False Hope) about the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands was immediately hailed as a seminal work. German historian Katja Happe gave the Cleveringa Lecture on 26 November. She is fascinated by what makes people take a stand.

It is exactly one year ago that the university had to close, bang in the middle of the academic year. Suddenly, on that third Monday in March, we found ourselves at home, working and studying online – many of us from that cramped attic or student room. The momentous coronavirus year in pictures.

Microplastics are small pieces of plastic found in the environment. At CML research have been conducted in the distribution of these plastics on beaches around the world using citizen science. In addition, CML is conducting in depth case-studies in the Caribbean and along the Dutch coast. Follow-up…

Recently, some changes have been made to the catalog of Leiden University Library, making more than 1000 digitized codices more accessible than before. The 'Inventory of Western Medieval Manuscripts Held by Leiden University Libraries,' created by manuscript curator André Bouwman, is also now available:…