On 8 September the students of the European Law Master gathered in the Lorentzzaal for the festive opening of their programme.

This year's Nobel Prize in Physics goes to quantum physics research. The prize will be awarded on December 10 in Stockholm. Physicist Bas Hensen explains why this is important and how his research in Leiden relates to it.

For a long time, Thijs Bosker was an average student, until he discovered how exciting learning becomes when there are no ready-made answers. To his students, he passes on one key message: hope is the driving force that keeps us moving forward. They nominated him as Lecturer of the Year.

An evolutionary 'trap' that has haunted crested and marbled newts for 25 million years: Leiden researchers have uncovered a mysterious DNA error that should not be able to arise – yet persists all the same. How is that possible? PhD candidate James France found new clues.

Willem te Beest, Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board, is retiring on 1 May. His farewell was celebrated in style in the Pieterskerk on 7 April. And, to his surprise, the celebrations included a royal decoration.

Attention to the colonial past may be increasing, but many aspects of it are still underexposed. Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, in collaboration with, among others, Leiden researchers Anne-Marieke van der Wal-Rémy and Alicia Schrikker, therefore created a 'Canon of the Dutch Underexposed Past', which…

The left is gaining more and more ground on the political map of Latin America, with the elections in Colombia as the most recent example. But what’s behind this pull to the left? Professor of Modern Latin American History Patricio Silva talks about the current political situation in the region.

Honduras recently severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan after 82 years. In doing so, the country is following the trend of other Central American countries that have turned their backs on the Asian island in recent years. Why are these countries making this choice now and what does it mean for Taiwan's…

Herman Spaink knows of many substances that may help combat tuberculosis. Lab space to study them safely is very limited in Leiden. A brand-new lab at Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia will soon provide a solution. About time, says Spaink, ‘The disease is on the rise and is becoming less sensitive…

As technology transforms healthcare and services come under mounting pressure, one question remains the same: Will the advice or treatment offered help patients lead the lives they want to live? In her inaugural lecture, Professor Maxime Kummeling stresses the importance of quality.

At the start of the new year, we celebrate the release of a new selection of collection items into the Public Domain. This year, Leiden University Libraries (UBL) is making approximately eight hundred items freely downloadable via Digital Collections.

In the eighteenth century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) housed its enslaved people on ‘Slave Island’ in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Today ‘Slave Island’ is under serious threat from property developers. Senior lecturer Alicia Schrikker, together with her Sri Lankan colleagues Iromi Perera…

Together with students and local residents, historians Ariadne Schmidt and Alicia Schrikker researched the Leiden Transvaal neighbourhood. They will present their findings on Thursday 20 October, at a specially organised mini-festival in the neighbourhood.

'Writing is not science, but art,' Lucas van Osenbruggen says. Last semester, he attended the Honours Class 'Creative Writing'. Together with his teacher Pauline Slot, he looks back on a course that is 'really different'.

For the Bachelor Honours Class 'Mass Extinction', students produced podcasts about the past, the present and the future of mass extinctions. What exactly is lost when a species goes extinct? What are the practical consequences? But also: does humanity have the moral duty to protect other species?

Discomfort obstructs scientific discussions about sex, argue Eva and Deva from the LOEF foundation. In their Bachelor Honours Class, students approach sex holistically. The results are positive: ‘I’ve become much more open about sex.’

PhD candidate Fien Demuynck researched how wind farms affect fish and how to minimise any negative impact.

Two years after launching an ERC Starting Grant to investigate cultural stereotyping in European Union governance, Adina Akbik and Christina Toenshoff at Leiden University are now publishing their first major findings. Looking at public opinion across the EU, the researchers show that cultural stereotypes…

More than half of the Indonesian population lives in cities. What does this mean for public health? How sustainable are these megacities? This is the subject of the ‘Urban Transitions’ Summer Academy on West Java. This summer course is also the kick-off for a renewed interdisciplinary partnership…

Training students to become medical professionals is an important task of a university medical centre. But teaching does not always receive the space and recognition it deserves. This needs to change, says Professor Alexandra Langers. Medical education is a profession in its own right.

Dr Mariana Françozo has been awarded a prestigious NWO Vici grant for a five year research project that brings together Indigenous communities, museum collections and interdisciplinary scholarship. Her project focuses on the histories and contemporary challenges of two Indigenous peoples in South America:…

Sara Polak, PhD researcher and lecturer at LUCAS, has won a Fulbright scholarship to work on her research on Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yale University from September 2014 till February 2015.

Five consortia within the Perspectief programme that include Leiden researchers have received funding to start their research projects. These projects focus on (further) developing technological innovations, with societal and economic impact at their core.

What do bats do at night when they’re not hunting? Using tiny GPS trackers, Leiden researchers discovered that pond bats spend a substantial portion of the night resting – often outdoors. This surprising insight could change the way we protect them.

Gratis te downloaden voor het onderwijs: een inspiratie- en lespakket over stervormen hun symbolische betekenis en hun rol in verschillende culturen en godsdiensten.

Next week, Sara Perlstein will defend her PhD on risk talk: the everyday conversations we have about risks with people close to us. From eating sushi to climbing or smoking, these informal talks shape how we deal with danger in other ways than official health advice does.

In nearly every Dutch primary and secondary school classroom, at least one child is bullied. The common perception is that the most popular child in the class is often the bully, while less popular children are more likely to be bullied. Is this image accurate? Bullying researcher Mitch van Geel knows…

Researchers at the Faculty of Science work at the frontiers of knowledge every day, tackling today’s major societal challenges. Their work is recognised through grants, prizes and other awards. We highlight some of these achievements.

Thinking about the next step in your career, networking, preparing for the labour market or possibly meeting your future employer. Over 400 students and young alumni of the Faculties Governance and Global Affairs, Humanities, and Behavioural Sciences came together last week during the Campus The Hague…

Historian Seran de Leede delved into the life of Lie Alma (1909–1990), the courageous woman from the Dutch province of Drenthe who spoke out against fascism in the 1930s and remains a source of inspiration to this day.

CML grants three Stans Awards each year, for the best student thesis, best PhD paper, and best outreach from the past year. The CML staff nominated students and colleagues and this year’s jury Prof. Martina Vijver & Prof. Willie Peijnenburg made the final decision.

How do you detect life on a planet light years away? During her PhD research, astronomer Willeke Mulder worked on an instrument to detect such signals – culminating in an experiment from a hot air balloon.

Galaxies in the early universe contain more dust and hidden star formation than previously thought. That's what Ivana van Leeuwen concludes in her PhD research, where she combines data from various telescopes to create a more complete picture.

Autism research is at times saturated with implicit values, norms and possible prejudices. Researchers should be more aware of this, says development psychologist Carolien Rieffe. She advocates Critical Design: a self-critical view as a scientific method.

On Thursday, the 19th of March 2026, students and staff had the chance to partake in the second full-day workshop organized by the Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Religions (L*CeSAR). This edition was centered on the role of the environment in relation to religion in antiquity.

Preventing viral infections from being transmitted through blood transfusion and organ transplantation lies at the heart of the work of medical microbiologist and virologist Mariet Feltkamp and her team.

Science thrives on freedom, safety, and stability. But what if these prerequisites are lacking? What if colleagues beyond our borders are threatened, persecuted or forced to flee?

What if you could watch a single cell eat in real time? This could answer questions about diseases such as cancer. PhD candidate Yixuan Wang has developed a glowing chemical tool that makes this possible, revealing how living cells take in nutrients.

Yousef Sweid was called a ‘stinking Arab’ in the sandpit at his Jewish kindergarten in Haifa. In a packed lecture hall, the Palestinian-Israeli actor performed a powerful excerpt from his show ‘Between the River and the Sea’.

In the Netherlands, euthanasia has no longer been a criminal offence since 2002. The practice is governed by very strict conditions. Nonetheless, the legal issues surrounding it are still the focus of heated discussion, according to Leiden professors. They are discussing the issue on 18 March during…

Since criticising the war in Ukraine, Russian author and cardiologist Maxim Osipov has fled Russia. Come September, he will be Leiden University’s writer in residence and teach a course on Russian literature.

A partnership with the Leiden Leadership Programme: what does it bring you? Two partner organisations in the field of sustainability, Arcadis and Bioto, share their experiences: “It's great to be surprised by new insights.”

Can students help make our cities more sustainable and resilient? The Resilient Cities Hub thinks so: during its knowledge café on 16 January, passionate students talked to municipal officials and pitched their master’s research. ‘In this way, the students learn to step out of the academic world and…

LERU, the League of European Research Universities, celebrated its fifteenth anniversary on 7 March in Brussels. The network of leading European universities has now grown to include 23 universities.

How do fats and enzymes in the brain contribute to multiple sclerosis? In his PhD research, Daan van der Vliet combined chemistry and neuroscience to gain new insights into how brain disorders develop.

One in two people will be diagnosed with cancer. World Cancer Day on 4 February raises awareness of the impact of this devastating disease. Leiden University is conducting various studies aimed at preventing and controlling cancer. Below are just a few examples.

The placebo effect was completely new to her when Lingling Weng began the PhD project in Leiden. She is now a postdoc in China. 'It would be great to investigate the underlying mechanisms of placebo and nocebo effects with my current knowledge of EEG and fMRI.' PhD defence on 17 October.

Niels Laurens recently started as the new Director of Operations at the Faculty of Archaeology as well as the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. We sat down with him for an interview on his background, his drive, and his take on archaeology. ‘My main drive is to enable researchers and lecturers…

For 125 years, Leiden University and the Leiden Instrument Makers School (LiS) have worked together on science and technology. This partnership is more important than ever today, as demand for skilled high tech professionals is growing fast: by 2030, an additional 40,000 people will be needed.

From 1967 to 1982, the United Nations undertook several peacekeeping operations in the Middle East. In his thesis from the Institute for History, Diego Salama examines how these operations were connected and their impact on the region.