2020 was an eventful year. You can see that in our photos: one and a half metres distance, an empty university, attending ceremonies online and working from home. The image editors have selected the twelve most eye-catching photos of the past year..

On Saturday 7 December, Leiden professor of Observational Astrophysics Ignas Snellen received the Hans Sigrist Prize from the University of Bern. The prize was awarded to him for his groundbreaking research on planets outside our own solar system.

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…

LUC The Hague Celebrates its 9th Birthday!

The Joan van der Waals colloquium is an ongoing bi-weekly lecture series.

This project intends to provide an integrated linguistic assessment of the hypothesised migration route of the Tocharians.

The Van Bergen Fund provides financial support to study associations of Leiden University for initiatives that promote contact between Dutch and international students. A good plan will receive a subsidy from the Van Bergen Fund.

The major aim is to develop, evaluate, and implement disease-generic cognitive-behavioral interventions through the internet in order to optimize tailored health care for patients with chronic somatic conditions.

The Faculty of Humanities has two advisory groups for Diversty & Inclusion: one for staff members and one for students.

Central to Nuranisa’s PhD project is the cultural diplomacy practiced by the Javanese courts of central Java (Surakarta, Yogyakarta, Pakualaman and Mangkunegaran) in response to the increasing Dutch colonial power in the 19th and early 20th century.

The Leiden Political Economy Group (L-PEG) is a multi-disciplinary network of scholars with a research interest in (comparative / global) political economy based at Leiden University. Our members belong to various institutes and faculties across Leiden University, and from other universities across…

Campus The Hague welcomed a group of young professionals in honor of the celebration of 444 years of Leiden University.

Conference

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 edition…

On 1 November 2019, international Master's students Data Science from Leiden University presented the elaboration of their data concepts to senior officials of the House of Representatives and Rijks I-Ecosysteem. With the presentation, they successfully completed this part of the Data Science master…

Which brilliant scientist will be our Discoverer of the Year 2019? Will it be a physicist, biologist, drug discoverer or an astronomer? Or an environmental scientist, a mathematician, chemist or computer scientist? As of now, you can cast your vote.

From a successful April Fool’s prank and alumni love stories to a fabulous float on 3 Octobe: these were the highlights of our year on our social media channels. Hope you’re following us?

How did manioc, a poisonous root, become the staple of Amazonia and change the lives of prehistoric Amazonian peoples? Veni grant recipient, Konrad Rybka aims to unravel this mystery using a variety of research methods across different disciplines.

The Language Learning Resource Centre at Leiden University is organizing a one-day conference (June 7th, 2019) on the topic of teaching language and intercultural communicative competence in higher education.

Health psychologist Andrea Evers has won the Stevin Prize – alongside the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. Evers: 'It’s also a prize for our whole team and our many contacts within and outside the University.’

We are happy to announce that the Call for Papers for ICEHL-21 is now out.

The Van Hecke group published in Nature Physics about programmable origami, which was covered in the following media.

Professor Hester Bijl will be appointed Rector Magnificus of the Executive Board of Leiden University on 8 February 2021. She will be the first female Rector Magnificus of Leiden University. Bijl has been Vice-Rector Magnificus of the University since 1 November 2016. Carel Stolker, who has served as…

Three new initiatives will provide a more diverse view of Leiden’s academic history, literally and figuratively: a historical study on the background of students and scientists, a new book about the Academy Building, and two new sculptures of female scientists, Ewine van Dishoek, Professor of Molecular…

Jaira Sona Chin (24) is a second-year student of the bachelor’s programme International Studies in The Hague. Three years ago, she founded her own NGO: the Sona Pushkar Project. With this organisation she helps families from an Indian village to break the circle of poverty.

INFORM (Introduction of the data protection reform to the judicial system) is a project granted by the Directorate-General Justice and Consumers of the European Commission.

As terrorism scholars, we are intrigued by those who engage in violence. We study their motivations, tactics, ideology, organisational structures, and pathways to (de-)mobilisation, hoping to better understand terrorism and how we can counter it. Far less attention is paid to what happens after an attack…

The School for Digital Deaf Studies 2025 is a hybrid school consisting of one week school in person in Ghana (15 - 24 August), followed by a one week school online later this year. It aims for the capacity building needed to expand academic research and education activities in digital Deaf studies,…

Leiden University works close with Indonesian and Dutch scholarship providers in order to expand the opportunities for Indonesian students to study in Leiden.

List of Kloosterman professors

Key publications of the Cardiovascular Pharmacology group

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…

Interest groups play an important role in democratic society.

At Campus The Hague, the University works closely with diverse parties and institutions in the city.

The Staff Alliance for Equity (SAFE) is a bottom-up platform open to staff of all levels, irrespective of contractual status. The presence and activities of SAFE extend our commitment to the Code of Conduct of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, which ‘wishes to offer all students and staff…

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 Faculty of Science has multiple study associations, which organise both study-related and social activities for students.

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.

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

On 5 February 2019, Alain Vannieuwenburg defended his thesis 'Pleidooi voor een lekenrenaissance'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. P.B. Cliteur.

Positive expectations can influence sensations of itch and evoke placebo effects, whereas negative expectations can trigger nocebo effects in itch. There is evidence that placebo effects can occur even when people know that they are taking a placebo. Little is known about how these so-called open-label…

Taking Mozambique as a case study, the aim of this research is to develop a methodology for improving flood risk assessments by extending hydrological records using paleo hydrologic evidence of past floods, combined with a socio-legal assessment of the land rights of those impacted by climate change…

Leiden University and the Municipality of Leiden worked together on the development of the Schilperoort Park. This new public space is situated in the north-eastern part of the Leiden Bio Science Park. The park ambience is extended into the adjacent residential area, where former medical laboratories…

In their vision trajectory, the Office for the Senior Civil Service (in Dutch: Bureau Algemene Bestuursdienst) communicated its plan to renew its vision on public leadership. Over the course of 2021, the Leiden Leadership Centre contributed as a scientific partner to the substantiation of this visio…

The aim of the Standard Operating Procedures for Research Integrity (SOPs4RI) project was to promote excellent research and a strong research integrity culture that aligns with the principles and norms of the ‘European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity’, and to counter research misconduct. The…