Professor of Science Communication Ionica Smeets will be awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University. She receives the award because she exemplifies how science communication can bridge the gap between experts and the general public.

Which teacher has the talent to really motivate their students or is able to combine current research in their lectures? These are important qualifications for winning the yearly university wide Teaching Prize. Dr. Karène Sanchez, lecturer French language and culture, is one of the nominees.

On Thursday, November 20, 2025, the Leiden Jewish Studies Network celebrated the launch of the book Still Lives: Jewish Photography in Nazi Germany (The University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025) co-authored by Ofer Ashkenazi (Jerusalem), Sarah Wobick-Segev (Hamburg), Shira Miron (Basel) and Rebekka Grossmann…

Professor Paul Keβler, prefect of the Leiden Hortus botanicus, holds the special chair Botanical gardens and botany of South-East Asia since 1 February 2017.

We are extremely proud of our alumni Nandini Paliwal (LLM 2016) and Valentina Vecchio (LLM 2017) for winning first and second place, respectively, for their essays in the EALA Prize this year.

Are you thinking about studying abroad for a semester? We came across two students who want to share their experiences with you.

As from 1 February 2017 the shuttle service of the Entrepreneur Society Bio Science Park stops. The main reason of this decision is the intensification of public transport at Leiden Bio Science Park since 11 December 2016.

2017 was the Leiden Asia Year. Leiden has had connections with Asia and built up extensive knowledge of the continent over many centuries. This Leiden-Asia link has been in the spotlight for the past year.

This article traces the evolution of interpretations of international law and international cyber norms on responsible state behaviour in cyberspace by reassessing five major – and allegedly state-led – cyber operations: Stuxnet 2010; Belgacom 2013-2014, the Ukrainian power grid 2015, the US presidential…

The recognition that there may be more, so-called allosteric binding sites on a given receptor has also fueled our synthetic efforts. Over the last few years we have focused on many drug targets (adenosine A1, A2A and A3 receptors, the mGlu2 receptor and a classic ‘anti-target’, the hERG channel) to…

If researchers make their data FAIR, computers can link large quantities of data and identify patterns, thus greatly accelerating the process of arriving at new insights. In Leiden, the birthplace of ‘FAIR data’, Professor Barend Mons explains the meaning of this term.

List of Kloosterman professors

Key publications of the Cardiovascular Pharmacology group

The motto of the Institute for History is: ‘Global questions, local sources.’ Its researchers use local sources to find answers to major historical questions. Without historical analysis, it is impossible to understand and explain the issues in society today. Leiden itself has a rich history, with big…

Training a robot in a real-life environment is more or less impossible. Computer scientist and psychologist Roy de Kleijn switched to training in a simulated, virtual one instead. ‘You do have a reality gap, but the more precisely you train the robot, the better it is in practice.’ His inspiration:…

We explore the possibilities to combine magnetic resonance techniques with atomic force microscopy together in a single microscope: the MRI-AFM, also called Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM).

How do the pathways of Dutch converts to Islam involved in jihadist movements differ from those of Dutch converts who are not, in terms of their life prior to Islam, their conversion experience and the form of involvement with the Islamic community after conversion?

The Food citizens? team has included two post-docs, three Ph.D. candidates and two research assistants working with the Principal Investigator. The Winter School involved nine Masters and Ph.D. candidates from the universities of Bologna, Gothenburg, Kaunas, Leiden, Louvain, Tromsø, Turin and Utrech…

The Austrian Studies Fund awards a prize and a stipend for talented students of Dutch and Flemish universities: the Hugo Weiland Prize and the Austrian Studies Fund Stipend.

The arts and science: for years, they were seen as opposite extremes. One calls on emotion and the other on reason. The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) proves that nothing could be further from the truth. ACPA is where the knowledge and expertise of Leiden University and the University…

Information about the association and the board.

The Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) is one of the few research institutes in the world in which researchers in the field of literature, art, architecture, design and media studies come together to conduct research into the cultural production of the western world, from classical…

Many metalloenzymes that are key to bioenergetics are membrane enzymes, with canonical examples the complexes I, II, III and IV in the mitochondrial inner membrane. To study these enzymes in a native-like lipid membrane environment, we aim to develop novel bioelectrochemical techniques.

It has been argued that the Internet presents numerous new opportunities for crime, including homicide. So far, empirical scholarly research in this domain is rather limited. In order to discover how perpetrators have used the Internet in the homicides they have committed, we conducted an international…

The International Institute of Air and Space Law, founded in 1985, collaborates with many world-class academic institutions.

The Open Science Lab bundles expertise on Open Science at CWTS and contributes to and studies the transition towards Open Science at CWTS, Leiden University, and beyond. It serves as a knowledge broker, facilitator, and platform for learning and exchange.

Fundamental knowledge generated through research increases our scientific and cultural knowledge and wealth, and offers an important basis for developing and innovating products and services, and for deciding how we should structure our society.

This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of ICLON (Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching) with four partners in Kazakhstan.

Impressions by Dr. Lilian Ruhe

The physical features of twelfth-century manuscripts from the Flemish abbey of Ter Duinen – such as script, page layout, and reading aids – show how their readers organized, interpreted, and transmitted knowledge.

Justin Bennett teaches in the Institute of Sonology of the Royal Conservatoire (KC) in the Hague. He is also a member of Jubilee, a platform for artistic research and production in Brussels.

The Immune Activation and Tolerance group is headed by Dr. Bram Slütter. Vaccination is an experimental, but promising, treatment strategy for atherosclerosis. Previous work has shown that immunization of mice with modified LDL particles can reduce atherosclerotic lesion development, however such vaccines…

Update : August 2017 Dr Willem van Haarlem

The Department of Child Law and Health Law is a knowledge centre dedicated to academic research and education for both students and professionals in two fields: child law (and children's rights) and health law.

The refurbished P.J. Veth Building - the first completed sub-project in the Humanities Campus project - was officially opened in the summer of 2017. The Faculty of Humanities moved in straight away. . The building was meticulously transformed into a modern teaching building with attractive areas for…

A tantalizing concept that has emerged in our recent research is binding kinetics. An important parameter is residence time (RT), a direct reflection of how long a drug stays bound to its target. This parameter is of crucial importance, because drug action lasts only as long as the receptor-ligand complex…

Research report January 2020. Supported by the lectorate ‘Music, Education and Society’, research group ‘Making in Music’, Royal Conservatoire The Hague

Browse the latest articles and issues of Inter-Section.

Taking the changing landscape of international cyber security and cyber conflict as a point of departure, The Hague Program on International Cyber Security focuses on the various modes of governance that states and other actors can bring into play to deal with and shape the strategic changes and challenges…

What distinguishes a tumour cell from a healthy cell? Researchers are trying to answer this question as precisely as possible. Certain differences could eventually lead to new therapies.

Africa has a population of 1.5 billion. In 30 years’ time, this will be 2.5 billion. The continent’s impact on the global economy, but also on the environment, will therefore increase drastically. Researchers from the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL) have been aware for decades of the crucial role…

Of the 111 Spinoza Prizes that have been awarded since 1995, 28 have gone to researchers from Leiden University.

With Brill, LUCIS publishes a peer-reviewed book series, “Leiden Studies in Islam and Society” (LSIS), aimed at an international academic audience.

Jean Monnet is the part of Erasmus+ dedicated to promoting excellence in EU studies in higher education around the world. Jean Monnet Actions aim to build bridges between academics, researchers and EU policymakers. There is an emphasis on the study of and research on EU integration and in understanding…

The debate about state behaviour in cyberspace may be set in the wrong legal key.

Microbes influence and respond to other organisms. This theme explores the dynamic relationships within plant and animal microbiomes, and the immune responses that govern host defense. Using model systems such as zebrafish, insects, and plants, we investigate fundamental processes and engineer microbes…

The Team International Relations and European Studies addresses the interconnections and interdependence of contemporary global political, economic, security and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective rooted in the humanities. More specifically it is concerned with the study of international relations…

The Chair Democratic Representation in the Kingdom focuses on the political relations between the ‘European’ Netherlands and the six Caribbean islands in the Kingdom; so-called Kingdom Relations. Professor Wouter Veenendaal investigates the quality of democratic representation in the Kingdom, both within…

In secondary school, homophobic language is common, even in the Netherlands where there is high acceptance of homosexuality in the adult population. Adolescents especially in lower educational levels have prevailingly negative attitudes towards their lesbian and gay peers. Peer education with its participatory…