The challenge is considerable, but so is the satisfaction when it succeeds: creating complex sugar molecules that play a role in biology.

An impressive 875 students from all corners of the globe are taking part in Orientation Week Leiden (OWL). After all the lockdowns in their own countries, they’re glad to meet up in real life in Leiden. What do they expect of their studies here?

The inaugural Society for the Study of French History First Book Prize has been awarded to Lewis Wade’s monograph 'Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France: Marine Insurance, War and the Atlantic Empire under Louis XIV (Boydell Press, 2023)'.

Consumer grade smartwatches may not be as accurate as promised when measuring tiredness or stress. That is the conclusion of researchers Björn Siepe and Eiko Fried based on a comparison between smartwatch measurements and self-reports by users.

It is with the greatest sadness that we have learned of the unexpected passing of Emma de Rijke. Emma was a student in the MA Asian Studies, having finished the BA China Studies just before she enrolled in the MA program in February 2024.

Professor of Fungal Genetics and Biotechnology Arthur Ram explains how fungi can help us be more sustainable.

In the coming academic year things will hopefully gradually return to normal, so that teaching can again take place as far as possible on campus. Even so, hybrid teaching is here to stay. We talk to Niels van de Ven, former lecturer at Leiden Law School and now Education Manager at the Centre for Innovation…

Henrike Vellinga recently joined the Institute for History as a PhD candidate, as part of Carolien Stolte's VIDI project 'Peace Palms. International Coalitions for Peace in the Era of Decolonization, 1918-1970'. The project runs alongside Carolien Stolte's ERC project 'Reconciling Peace: International…

The right medicine in the right dosage for every patient, that is something medical science aspires. 'Personalised medicine' is the term for that. But it does require a lot of research with patient data and that can be hard to get due to privacy legislation. Researchers Laura Zwep and Coen van Hasselt…

For a long time, even many researchers thought that guide dogs were a relatively modern invention. An accidental encounter with archival material showed university lecturer Krista Milne that guide dogs helped their blind owners as far back as the Middle Ages. Milne now has received an NWO XS grant to…

On 17 June, primary school pupils in Leiden will get the chance to explore science in an interactive and engaging way. The exciting new show ‘Wetenschapswonders’ is the initiative of master’s students Boele Visser and Ilse Hordijk, from the Rino Foundation. ‘I’m happy to help build a bridge between…

Leiden Mayor Peter Heijkoop visited the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences and the Faculty of Science on Monday,

Generations of Leiden students and academics have done archaeological research into the early medieval history of Oegstgeest. This makes this old settlement one of the best-documented sites from that era. In a new book Leiden researchers take stock.

A European bachelor’s degree, an enormous web of collaborations and masses of fantastic opportunities for researchers and support professionals: in two years, we as a university have come far within the Una Europa alliance, says Professor Joanne van der Leun. She rejoined the Una Europa Board of Directors…

New Report Launched by ACPF with the support of the Department of Child Law and Health Law

When we think about ancient Egypt, the first things that come to mind are usually mummies and sarcophagi. According to researcher and Rijksmuseum van Oudheden curator Lara Weiss, that impression is unjustified. She made an audio tour for the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden that focuses on living Egyptians…

Cornald Maas was able to ‘pioneer’ in Leiden. This Dutch Studies graduate, presenter, programme maker and publicist combined an active student life with studying hard.

The decolonisation war in Indonesia was violent partly because the Dutch military operated on the conviction that ‘an uprising had to be forcibly suppressed.’ This what historian Christiaan Harinck from the KITLV discovered in his PhD research.

The Schoof government, which has since assumed a caretaker role, presented its coalition agreement last year, followed later by its budget. As expected, higher education is facing severe cuts. In the coming period, the Executive Board will regularly (see updates below) look at the consequences of what…

Discover insights and advice from Leiden scientists on bullying, how to stop and prevent it. Learn why people bully, how bullied children can get help and what it takes to create a safe environment. Find out how anti-bullying programmes work in schools and why bullying is a serious problem that needs…

Information briefing

Information briefing

Festival

Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life. Jasper first wrote his column from Kuala Lumpur, and it was ready to share. Then a crisis arose this week that demanded…

Lecture

My colleagues and I have been devastated to learn that our good colleague and friend Stefan Landsberger (born 1955) passed away unexpectedly, on 26 September 2024. Stefan had been a fixture of China Studies in the Netherlands, where he had been Associate Professor of contemporary Chinese History and…

Staff Association

This February Metje Postma will stop teaching and retire. But she is not done with the discipline yet: she will finish her PhD and there are still five films on the shelf that she plans to complete.

Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker will retire on 8 February. If there’s one theme running through his career, it’s the links between the University and society. In this series of pre-retirement discussions, Stolker will talk one last time to people from within and without the University. In this first…

In a new series of articles, we explore how the humanities study topics related to sustainability. First up: waste. How and why study waste as a humanities scholar? We asked Elena Burgos Martinez, University Lecturer South and Southeast Asian Studies, and Katarzyna Cwiertka, Professor of Modern Japan…

Siemens recently took over the Leiden software company Culgi, founded by professor and inventor J.G.E.M. (Hans) Fraaije. We spoke to him about the algorithm that made him successful, the role of a university in our society and his ambitions at Siemens. ‘I was looking for Siemens, and they were looking…

They dreamed of Brussels, worked hard and finally succeeded: working for Europe. The list of Leiden University alumni in Brussels is long. A few days before the European elections, Julia Gencheva and Vincent Miča talk about how they ended up in Brussels and what their jobs entail.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded Vidi grants to 14 Leiden researchers. This grant of a maximum of 850,000 euros will enable them to start a new research group and develop their own line of research over the next five years.

Here you will find questions and answers about GROW, the types of interviews, the GROW tile and more.

On this page you will find an overview of the activities organised by the Leiden Research Support Network.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas has had a clear impact on Leiden University. Students and staff are angry or scared, feel unsafe and are experiencing group pressure.

Staff from Leiden University are starting the Dutch universities’ staggered strike against the government cuts on 10 March. Follow the strike in this liveblog.

She stands out for the moderate tone she takes in discussions on Dutch talk shows. Without judgement you can have an open conversation, criminal lawyer Natacha Harlequin learned in her student days in Leiden. ‘What I personally think of the alleged act doesn’t matter so much.’

In the Pioneers of Leiden University series we talk to past and present students who were the first in their family to go to university. In this fourth instalment: alumnus and philosopher of law Ali Kösedag (1992): ‘Philosophising about equality before the law in the Netherlands at an early-morning…

Conference

An impressive 60 alumni recently came to the Dutch Embassy residence in Japan to meet, network, see friends and practise their languages.

By far the majority of users of child sexual abuse networks (or child porn forums as they are sometimes called) on the dark web do not actively communicate there but download illegal material, therefore committing a criminal offence. But they often stay under the police and judiciary’s radar. PhD candidate…

During the course BBO II: Multi-Level Governance, students learn to make the link between theory and society by completing a challenging practical assignment.

How do we know what a quantum computer is good for when it hasn't been built yet? That's what PhD candidate Casper Gyurik investigated by combining two terms you often hear: quantum computing and machine learning.

An important part of the Leiden Leadership Programme (LLP) is the practical assignment that students are given by a partner organisation. How does this benefit the organisations? Two Leiden partners talk about working with the students.

Bringing the community together, doing up the community centre or researching how to make gardens greener. Students now have a base in Leiden-Noord where they can work with local residents and partner organisations to make the city a better place to live. It was the official opening of ‘Learning with…

'It gave our team a big boost to hear that our work was valuable,' says medical chemist Elmer Maurits about the moment they won the Venture Challenge. With their company Iprotics, they want to develop a drug that can better treat patients with autoimmune diseases and blood cancers. 25,000 euros of prize…

Are you curious about how the human skeleton works? Discover this and more on 3 October in Leiden and on 4 October in The Hague.

When it comes to literature, people mostly talk about what characters see or hear. Rarely is it about what they smell. That’s a shame, thinks university lecturer Jan van Dijkhuizen. He has been awarded an Open Competition grant from NWO to expand academic knowledge about scent in literature, and to…

Dr Valentina Azzarà, an honorary research fellow at the Faculty of Archaeology and an expert on prehistoric Oman, was recently invited to feature in a National Geographic documentary that aired last year. The opportunity came after a series of discussions and preparations that saw her engage with the…