How can The Netherlands, France and Germany cooperate more closely on issues such as European security and defence. Join the kick off of The European Strategic Dialogue Series, an initiative by the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and its partners in France and Germany. Joachim Koops tells more…

As young people’s friendships improve, their mental resilience also increases. This is according to research conducted by Anne-Laura van Harmelen, Professor of Brain, Safety and Resilience at Leiden University.

Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) has spent the past five years coordinating an international study of genetic mutations and breast cancer risks. The results will make it easier to determine which genes increase the risk of breast cancer and to what extent. The researchers published their results…

Are you keen to beat your friends or colleagues and win the European Championship football pool? Statistician Marjolein Fokkema has some tips that might increase your chances.

The emergence of 'illiberal democracies' and the protection of human rights in Europe.

Leiden researchers, led by Sebastian Pomplun developed a new method to screen hundreds of thousands of molecules for drug discovery, using mass spectrometry instead of DNA tags. ‘We wanted to make drug discovery faster and more accessible.’

A new discovery proves that it matters which approach researchers take in analyzing large physical, social or biological systems that have a networked structure. Ever since the early 1900s, scientists have assumed each approach is equivalent. Now many results in statistical physics may no longer hold.…

What is Planet A? A new exhibition in the Old Observatory sheds light on how we all have different perceptions of earth. In five art installations, visitors are confronted with their own beliefs and how these differ from those of others.

Missing legends, illogical connections or three-dimensional graphs. There are many ways in which data can deceive. Five students took up the fight against misleading statistics. Their lesson series can now be found online.

Zoé is een tweedejaars bachelorstudent bij LUC, waar ze de richting culture, history & society volgt. Afgelopen zomer heeft ze stage gelopen bij de krant Le Parisien in Parijs.

A new series of webinars, the Cleveringa Dallaire Critical Conversation Series, begins on 22 September. In this series of online conversations, expert panels from Leiden and abroad will talk about leadership and moral dilemmas in times of conflict and crisis. The series is open to all.

Iraqi-Kurdish student of Middle Eastern Studies Bareez Majid has been nominated for the ECHO Award. ‘She has a strong personality, though she may appear unassuming at first,’ was the comment from one of her lecturers.

A really worthwhile cross-fertilisation. This is how two enthusiastic students from the TU Delft describe the Leiden Leadership Programme. ‘I'm already applying in Delft things I am learning here.'

In the past, the Dutch community living in Cairo made an annual visit to the then Leiden-only mission to Saqqara. They would come out and have a nice picnic together with the excavation team and visit the monumental New Kingdom tombs. The current Leiden-Turin expedition would very much like to revive…

As one of the first environmental scientists ever, Arnold Tukker received the honorary doctorate at Linköping University on Saturday 12 November. This Swedish university awarded Tukker for his scientific work to establish a circular economy.

The Corstens Commission that investigated whether there are any grounds for the rumours of antisemitism at the Faculty of Law has found no indication whatsoever for such expressions. This also applies to the professor in question. This is evident from the report that the commission chaired by Professor…

They sprayed with corn starch and made detailed drawings of the genitalia of spiders. In different ways students studied spiders in the dense tropical rainforest of Borneo. With their work they solved a spider mystery and published about this in Biodiversity Data Journal in April.

No fewer than three Leiden University Humanities scholars have been awarded funding from the NWO’s Free Competition in the Humanities programme: two grants of 750,000 euros and one of 705,000 euros. In total, twelve researchers have received a grant in the NWO Social Sciences and Humanities domain.

A team of international researchers led by Tomas Stolker in the Netherlands has imaged a young gas giant exoplanet near a 12-million-year-old star. The planet is orbiting a star at which planet formation has finished, while the same-aged companion star still has a planet-forming disk. The researchers…

How to create an unforgettable astronomy experience for tourists? And how to create fun activities that also have scientific and educational value? The Astronomy & Society Group at Leiden Observatory has translated a manual that answers those questions. The Observatory’s public engagement team hopes…

Translating poetry is notoriously difficult. Translating poetry in such a way that the humorous nature of a poem remains intact is even more difficult, even though it is precisely jokes that can encourage children to read more, notes PhD candidate Alice Morta.

The surface of platinum electrodes changes much more during use than was previously thought. In a collaboration between the Leiden Institutes of Chemistry and Physics, chemists Leon Jacobse, Yi-Fan Huang and Marc Koper, and physicist Marcel Rost have been able to show this for the first time. Publication…

Adhesives are an incredibly important part of every day life. They help hold together everything from shoes and mobile phones to satellites in space. But we didn’t invent adhesives: Neanderthals did, to make handles for stone tools over 191,000 years ago. Leiden researchers now found that Neanderthals…

Picturing Scholasticide is a multimodal initiative that brings urgent attention to the social and legal consequences of Israel’s systematic destruction of Palestinian institutions of higher education. The project consists of both a physical exhibition and a website.

A TikTok by student Loïs de Jong from Leiden University in which Leiden sparkles as a student city won the final of the Leiden Media Contest on 13 June. According to the jury, the film was ‘the most appealing for today’s generation of current and prospective students – it includes nearly all elements…

Dr Anouk Goemans has been appointed professor by special appointment of Youth Services and Child Protection from an Educational and Legal Perspective as of 1 November 2024. This chair is funded by the 'Stichting Steunfonds Pro Juventute' support fund foundation and serves as a bridge between the Department…

Grootschalige productie van batterijen voor elektrische auto’s zwakt de emissiereductie die door elektrisch rijden wordt behaald af.

Many of the language rules we use today were formulated in the 17th and 18th centuries. In a dual track at the universities of Leiden and Brussels, PhD candidate Eline Lismont investigated why some rules became successful while other rules were quickly forgotten.

Feeling nostalgic, Professor in Public Administration Science Bernard Steunenberg explains how some years ago he would occasionally show a TV broadcast to his students, first removing the videotape from its big box and putting it in a VHS player. Today, a student from Maastricht, sitting in the train…

Nikie Veld is an education coordinator at Biology. Her job now mainly revolves around getting students back to the Faculty. ‘In the corona era, we were constantly rearranging the timetables.’

Physicist Martin van Hecke receives a 2.5 million euro ERC research grant for research into information processing materials. Starting out with a piece of rubber that can count to ten.

In 2014 Russia entered Ukraine and occupied Crimea, and about two and a half years ago it began a large-scale invasion. For Ukraine, it’s a war. But Russia calls it a ‘special military operation’. Word choices of this kind affect how people look at issues. A Dutch Research Council (NWO) project led…

Zebrafish-human communication shows that cancer cells lacking a signaling protein are less able to develop aggressive metastatic properties. This discovery has been made by molecular cell biologist Claudia Tulotta. PhD defence 14 June.

The lecture halls in the Lipsius were full of curious secondary school students in January. During a special profile selection afternoon, they were introduced to the faculty and language studies. ‘I had no idea that Hebrew and Arabic were similar.’

Have you ever experienced the feeling of awkwardness when attending a party where you didn’t know anybody? Ever felt shy at a party within the first few minutes? While this feeling is labelled loosely as feeling socially anxious, social anxiety disorder goes to a much further extent.

Warning colours ensure that predators remember that certain prey are poisonous. But now it appears that the colours of poisonous Panamanian frogs are also influenced by fastidious females: partner choice can also lead to colour change in these frogs, as Leiden researcher Martine Maan has reported in…

Try to resolve the nitrogen problem, go on a regeneration journey or take part in psychological research: discover this and more at the new and improved 3 October University, ‘WetenschapsWarenMarkt’.

On April 19, Pax Initiative, a youth led NGO, held its first ever event at the Museon in the Hague. The event, “International Court of Justice Idealab: The Future of the ICJ” was a productive and inspiring discussion among students and young professionals on how the Court can reach the 16th Sustainable…

The International Day of Light (IDL) celebrates the ubiquitous role light has in our lives. From Argentina to South Africa, Japan and Pakistan, several events have taken place across all continents on May 16. The date is a token for people around the globe to connect with the importance of light in…

With the childcare benefits scandal in the Netherlands, certain interests in society were hidden for long to politics and governance. With the farmers’ protests, on the other hand, the major economic and political interests at stake were hidden for long to society. In her inaugural lecture on 16 September,…

Advisory Board member Colin Sage shares insights about the Food Citizens? project.

The European Football Championship for Women, in the Netherlands this summer, is the background for a large and innovative data research project. The Dutch football union is working together with Leiden University and Sportinnovator. The research is expected to uncover links that have thus far remained…

On 28 February 2019 the Stichting Bob Wessels Insolvency Law Collection will hold a PhD workshop on European/International Insolvency Law to which PhD students form Europe and beyond are invited. It provides PhD students with a venue to present their ideas, but also the challenges and questions they…

After almost twenty years the record for the most distant radio galaxy has been broken. A team of astronomers led by Leiden PhD candidate Aayush Saxena has discovered a radio galaxy from the time when the universe was just one billion years old. The galaxy is at a distance of 12 billion light years…

LUC has the best professors of the large university programmes in The Netherlands. Sharing the first place with University College Maastricht with 90/100 points, LUC scores significantly better than all other programmes. This year, next to the general Dutch university ranking, weekly magazine Elsevier…

Professor Herman Paul has been appointed Scientific Director of the Institute of History from 1 February 2025. ‘Especially in these times, transparency is essential.’

Take a walk through any city, and you are likely to come across a brightly coloured mural. Although these paintings often seem to serve solely as a backdrop for Instagram snapshots, art history professor Minna Valjakka says there are rich traditions and intricate histories that uncover more critical…

Are you keen to immerse yourself in a new culture, broaden your horizons and make friends for life? If so, come to the Study Abroad Festival on Friday afternoon 14 October.

Leiden emeritus professor George Miley receives an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin on 8 December. ‘I never dreamed that I would receive an honorary doctorate somewhere, and this is all the more emotional because it's in the city where I spent the first 21 years of my life.’

Too expensive groceries, diseases suddenly breaking out: from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, hundreds of people documented the world around them in chronicles. A significant number of these texts have been digitised in recent years. Professor of Early Modern Dutch History and project leader…