Globally, the number of deaths from infections is on the rise as more bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. New classes are desperately needed. A promising resistance inhibitor is now being developed by the research group of Nathaniel Martin, Professor of Biological Chemistry. Inaugural speech on…

Data play an important role in any organization. More and more data are available about products, about production processes and about customers. At the annual LIACS Business Event on Wednesday 18 January, the central message was how to find irregularities in Big Data, and how it can help you to track…

The Master's programme in History at Leiden University is set to change. From September 2026, three of the five specialisations will be replaced by new subjects that are more closely aligned with the field of research and students’ interests. One of these new specialisations will also be taught entirely…

LUF grants for research projects have been awarded to Liesbeth van Vliet, Michiel Claessen, Anna van Duijvenvoorde, Laura Steenbergen, Kim de Jong and Franziska Richter. Each of these Leiden University scientists receive an amount between € 17.500 and € 25.000 to realise their scientific plans.

Ester van der Voet received the International Society Award in Industrial Ecology. She is awarded this price for her outstanding contributions and leadership in the field of industrial ecology, and her tireless efforts to promote sustainability and resource management. The ceremony took place on the…

Theoretical physicists research a special class of particles; Weyl fermions. They have found them to exhibit paradoxical behavior, in contradiction to a thirty-year old fundamental theory in electromagnetism. A possible application is a new kind of electronics—spintronics. Publication in Physical Review…

America’s dominance of the world stage is coming to an end. These were the words of Professor Amitav Acharya in his guest lecture in The Hague on 5 February. ‘But the world really won’t be plunged into immediate chaos.’

It is with great sadness that we learned that our colleague Leo Waaijers, guest employee at our institute, passed away on August 1 after a short illness.

Looking for a job after a financial crisis is not easy, but Ward Hoskens (28) managed to take his fate into his own hands. During an internship, he found his way to the Pieterskerk, where he now works as a junior curator. Director Frieke Hurkmans took him on.

Women in the Middle Ages often wore better quality clothes than men. This is one of the conclusions drawn by Leiden archaeologist Chrystel Brandenburgh, who studied textile remnants from the period from 400 to 1000 A.D. PhD defence 10 May.

Paul van Trigt and Anna Derksen, both researchers in the project 'Rethinking Disability', received grants for research abroad.

On 14 November 2025, representatives from several organizations across the publishing reform and research assessment reform communities gathered in Pisa, Italy, for a workshop aimed at identifying and advancing joint actions to strengthen both movements.

Dr Eduard Fosch-Villaronga, Assistant Professor at eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies, and 8 partners have been awarded the project 'BIAS: Mitigating Diversity Biases in the Labour Market', a large €4.7M Horizon Europe grant.

Nienke van der Marel has been awarded the New Horizons Prize in physics for her pioneering research on planet formation. This prize is given to young, promising researchers in physics or mathematics. The astronomer and her colleagues found the first observational evidence for 'dust traps' in disks around…

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO allocates nearly € 19.5 million to a Dutch cluster that contributes to the development of an X-ray camera and spectrograph for the new European space telescope Athena. Leiden Observatory is one of the members of the cluster.

After a week of shadowing for her master's degree in Public Sector Management, it has become very clear to student Loes what a manager's day looks like. 'He was putting out fires all day.'

Research conducted by Deloitte, with advice from Leiden University and Nibud (National Institute for Family Finance Information), shows that six out of ten households in the Netherlands are financially unhealthy. National media paid much attention to the report.

Not only the United States but also the Netherlands are faced with 'systemic problems' to do with racism and discrimination, according to Dutch Prime Minister Rutte during a press conference held on 3 June. The Prime Minister responded to the events taking place in the United States after the death…

Student of International Studies Susanne Reitsma has a remarkable passion: water. In April 2015, she was elected vice president of the World Youth Parliament for Water, in which capacity she works for worldwide access to clean drinking water and sanitation. What does Suzanne find so special about water?…

Dutch newspaper Trouw investigated the tax position of multinational Cargill. Their conclusion? Cargill appears not to pay taxes over their profits. Trouw asked Jan van de Streek, Professor of Tax Law, and PhD candidate Josephine van der Have for an explanation. Prior to this, Van der Have had also…

The Dutch Passport Alerts Register (Register paspoortsignaleringen, RPS) lists Dutch nationals (around 8000 in 2021) whose right to a passport has been restricted. As a result, they cannot apply for, renew, or must surrender their passports. Under the Passport Act, the Tax Authority, the DUO (Education…

Medewerkers van de Universiteit Leiden trappen maandag 10 maart de estafettestaking af van de Nederlandse universiteiten tegen de kabinetsbezuinigingen.

Until now, systematic discussions of gender, race and law have received little attention from Dutch law faculties, especially at the undergraduate teaching level. At the same time, public calls for discussion of these issues increases rapidly.

Fish populations in lakes and rivers have declined in recent decades. This is probably due to light and noise pollution. The Horizon Europe grant enables ecologist Hans Slabbekoorn to investigate this and improve the situation for migrating fish. In order to do so, a seven-metre-long swimming tunnel…

The monthly ILS Lunch Seminars present the perfect opportunity to unite the different institutes situated within Leiden Law School and are steadily developing into somewhat of a tradition. On Thursday 11 October 2018, the second edition of the monthly ILS Lunch Seminars 2018-2019 will take place. This…

Mum works in healthcare, dad in engineering and everyone is straight: many textbooks still show men and women in stereotypical roles, PhD candidate Tessa van de Rozenberg has discovered. She also found that children’s views on these topics often closely resemble those of their parents.

The pesticide thiacloprid turns out to be more harmful than previously thought. It can disrupt the lives of freshwater invertebrates and their communities, upsetting the balance and functioning of entire freshwater ecosystems. This was shown by ecologist Henrik Barmentlo and colleagues, their research…

Professor of Law and Society Maartje van der Woude is searching for innovative ways to facilitate dialogue about topics that are usually experienced as ‘difficult to talk about’ – such as racism, ethnic profiling, exclusion, crimmigration – with a wide audience.

Scientists of the faculty of Governance and Global Affairs research completely different subject, among which terrorism, cybercrime and migration. In the upcoming weeks we will give the floor to several of our very best researchers. In this episode: Constant Hijzen researches secret services.

If you could design your own education, how would you do it? That is what the students of the Bachelor Honours Class 'Rebuilding Education' asked themselves. The students were divided into five groups in which they designed workshops to improve education. They presented their workshops in December in…

Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, may be used as an alternative treatment option when antibiotics fail. Leiden researchers have studied the structure and function of a novel bacteriophage that could be used to treat one of the WHO bacterial strains of concern where new treatments are urgently…

On Wednesday the 23rd of March 2016, Prof. Richard Leakey, the world renowned palaeoanthropologist and conservationist from Kenya and Honorary Member of the LEAD Programme, visited the LEAD Office to contribute to a PhD Workshop.

Drones are proving to be a good means of mapping man-made changes in the landscape. Geophysicist Till Sonneman and his colleagues (archaeology) are experimenting with drones in inaccessible areas of the Caribbean.

On Thursday 19 September, the first ILS Lunch Seminar of this academic year took place. Clare Fenwick and Ilya Kokorin gave two very insightful presentations in this very well visited edition of the Lunch Seminars.

Graig Klein, assistant professor at the Institute of Security of Global Affairs (ISGA), has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) for his project TERGAP. With this 1.500.000 euro grant Klein and his research team will investigate terrorist groups’ decision-making and strategic…

‘It's where disciplines intersect that the most exciting scientific questions arise.' This was the message given by John van Noort, Professor of Biophysics, in his inaugural lecture. His own research is at the interface between biology and physics. Inaugural lecture 23 April.

What do you do with a museum collection full of individual white Nobel laureates at a time when diversity, inclusion and teamwork reign supreme? Ad Maas, professor by special appointment, and researcher Hilbrand Wouters have been awarded an NWO Museum grant to answer that question.

Dutch influencers like Romy Boomsma and Nina Pierson have a huge following on Instagram and are increasingly sharing book tips there. Researcher Aafje de Roest wants to find out more about the reading culture they are promoting and its effect on the reading habits of their mostly young female follow…

How would you convert Egyptian hieroglyphs into Latin script? And what is actually the correct translation of dishes on a Vietnamese menu? On Saturday 28 January, high school students from all over the Netherlands will come to Leiden to ponder a series of language-related puzzles. Their goal? To win…

Chinese and Leiden scientists came together in Leiden to study the intricacies of modern visual techniques.

Russian literature is awash with disputes, riots and intense political debates. In the new Dutch podcast Schandaal en Controverse in de Russische literatuur, senior lecturer Otto Boele and film maker and journalist Kay Mastenbroek discuss the most talked-about Russian books published in the past two…

Kim Beerden, lecturer in Ancient History, has won the 2016 LUS Teaching Prize.

Throughout the year, master's student Berber Kommerij is busy analysing medieval and early modern books and paintings. Every summer, however, she leaves for the Norwegian fjords to conduct sea kayaking tours. 'Watersports are my great love.'

The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged political leaders worldwide, bringing discussion about leadership in times of crisis. In various media outlets, a recurring topic has been the relationship between the gender of a country’s leader and the success of his or her Covid-19 approach. Especially female…

For his ground-breaking chemical biological research, a VICI-grant has been awarded to Mario van der Stelt, professor of Molecular physiology at Leiden University. In a new research line, he aims to discover binding sites for new medicines against inflammations in the brain.

Four students of the Faculty of Archaeology investigated how the current and past inhabitants of the Dutch province of South Holland deal with water. Their findings now feature in an exhibition that can now be visited in the Van Steenis building’s Reuvenshal.

The Covid pandemic has had a considerable impact on academics’ work and well-being. They have had much less time to spend on their research. The Young Academy and the Dutch Network of Women Professors have conducted research into how the situation has been for academics. The two organisations have recommendations…

The mission in Uruzgan Province in Afghanistan was a formative experience for Dutch soldiers in which many lessons were learned. But most of those lessons have already been forgotten.

Isabel van Vledder and Dieuwertje van der Vlugt, 2 astronomy students from Leiden University, have mapped the entire Milky Way galaxy in dwarf stars for the first time. This result is the most comprehensive model ever for the distribution of these stars. The findings appear in a new paper in Monthly…

Physicist Jelmer Renema will spend two years conducting research at Oxford University in Great Britain funded by a Rubicon grant from NWO.