The Dies Natalis for alumni on 11 February was an online event. Almost 1,000 alumni tuned in to Bastiaan Rijpkema’s interview with Annetje Ottow, who had then been President of Leiden University’s Executive Board for all of three days. Alumni are part of her portfolio on the Executive Board.

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…

The Faculty of Humanities offers an inspiring international working environment with room for diversity and innovation to staff and students from home and abroad.

This research project is funded by a subsidy from Instituut Gak.

LUC The Hague Celebrates its 9th Birthday!

Faculty of Archaeology opened its doors to welcome over 100 archaeology and living archaeology enthusiasts from all over the Netherlands

On June 14th, Jeroen Duindam, Professor of History at the Faculty of Humanities, was awarded an exceptionally high distinction for his achievements in the field of Austrian history.

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

PhD defence

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

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.

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.

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

LUCIS organiseerde op woensdag 4 maart een speciale avond over journalistiek in Irak. Journaliste Judit Neurink en programmamaker Sakir Khader vertelden over hun ervaringen en recente werkzaamheden in het land. De avond stond onder leiding van Wendelmoet Boersema (politiek redacteur van dagblad Trou…

An overview of the media appearances of scientists working with the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs about terrorist attacks in Europe, their consequences, and more.

Bone remains that are thousands of years old are often too fragmented to be identified. PhD candidate Frido Welker is the first person to be able to distinguish human bones from one another on the basis of old proteins. PhD defence 18 May.

Ontwikkelen van een vaccin tegen aderverkalking

Waarom is empirisch-juridisch onderzoek van belang voor de rechtspraktijk en het wetenschappelijke onderzoek? Op die vraag kregen masterstudenten van de afstudeerrichtingen civiel recht, ondernemingsrecht en financieel recht antwoord tijdens het congres over empirisch-juridisch onderzoek en het privaatrecht…

The year 2023 saw the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the Wagner Group rebellion and wildfires and floods as all the weather records were smashed. Our most-read stories were about the climate crisis and the elections: here’s the list.

Afgelopen zondagavond, 22 augustus, is na een kort ziekbed onze zeer gewaardeerde collega professor Wim Jiskoot, Hoogleraar Technologie van toediening van medicijnen, overleden. Wim werd twee weken geleden onverwachts geconfronteerd met het feit dat hij een vergevorderd stadium van kanker had, waarvoor…

Harvesting rice from the same field, without planting new rice plants? A discovery may bring this scenario closer. Leiden scientists have discovered a gene that allows annual plants to grow after flowering, instead of dying. Publication on 13 April in Nature Plants.

Uniting an international consortium of scholars, the Skandapurāṇa Project comprises a team of researchers working in fields across the Humanities. We are creating a critical edition of a foundational work of purāṇic literature and, in doing so, tracing the dynamics of a textual tradition to better understand…

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…

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…

Op woensdag 24 april 2024 organiseerde de studievereniging Suum Cuique haar jaarlijkse congres, dit jaar met het thema ‘De WAMCA en ideële vorderingen’. Branda Katan, bijzonder hoogleraar Corporate Litigation bij de Universiteit Leiden en partner bij Stibbe, sprak samen met Robin Tess Bolland, advocaat…

In the Dutch media lots of articles have recently appeared based on interviews with Eveline Crone about the adolescent brain.

A publication in Nature Plants by a team of Leiden biologists has received national and international media attention. The researchers can have annuals flower multiple times thanks to a particular gene they discovered.

Jordy Bouwman and future Sterrewachter Reinout van Weeren have been awarded a Vidi subsidy to set up or expand their own line of research.

Wil je onderzoeksideeën en nieuwe publicaties in informele setting met vakgenoten bespreken? Meld je dan aan voor deze nieuwe seminar-reeks! Elke laatste woensdag van de maand komen we samen, afwisselend op locatie en online. De eerste bijeenkomst zal plaatsvinden op woensdag 26 oktober van 16:00 tot…

ACPA alumna Nicoleta Paraschivescu has released her CD -PARTIMENTI NAPOLETANI, a musical complement to her book Paisiellos Partimenti: Wege zu einem praxisbezogenen Verständnis (SCBS 6), soon to be published by Schwabe Verlag in Basel.

docARTES alumna Nicoleta Paraschivescu to record Paisiello's Partimenti

The article deals with the influence of the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons between Switzerland and the EU on the international tax separation, more specifically on the tax separation of tax deductions for natural persons.

Ben Wielstra and his team have received a ENW-M-1 grant. This grant of 354.000 euros is awarded by NWO, and will enable the researchers of the Institute of Biology Leiden and Naturalis to continue their evolutionary newt research.

Lamberto Zannier, Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), gave a lecture on ‘The OSCE, a bridge between East and West and a platform for dialogue on European security’

Yesterday, the House of Representatives in the Netherlands rejected a motion that would completely rule out an obligation to get vaccinated. Compulsory vaccination in the Netherlands can be considered if public health is at stake. Professor of Health Law Aart Hendriks of Leiden University discussed…

In Dutch nature, plant species that depend on pollination by insects are disappearing. Environmental scientist Kaixuan Pan shows this after analysing 87 years of measurements from more than 365,000 locations. Several national and international media reported on the study results. Below is an overview…

In the days following Christmas, Christa Tobler gave a series of interviews to Swiss newspapers and Swiss radio about the new Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK and about what it might mean for Switzerland-EU relations and the draft EU-Swiss institutional framework agreement.

For centuries, astronomers have studied the universe by collecting light signals. Since 2015, the confirmation of an important prediction of Einstein allows us to explore the universe in a new way: through gravitational wave radiation. Astronomy PhD candidate Valeriya Korol proposes to use these gravitational…

The proceeds of the Leiden University Science Run on 28 September will go to Scholars at Risk, a section of the UAF that assists refugee scholars. One such scholar is Leiden PhD candidate Lety Elvir Lazo from Honduras.

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.’