By effectively integrating word-class scientific research and excellent education, you will become a professional astronomer with an internationally recognized degree.

By integrating world-class scientific research and education, you will become a professional physicist with an internationally recognized degree.

The two-year Astronomy and High-Tech Innovation master’s specialisation places you at the heart of the latest astronomical discoveries, cutting-edge instrumentation, high-precision measurements, and innovative technologies in advanced instrumentation engineering. The programme is supported by researchers…

Lyndsey Housden teaches in the Interactive/Media/Design department at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague. She is a researcher and artist, working with interactive and haptic installations, spatial design and interdisciplinary projects for exhibitions, theatre, and festivals.

The Old Observatory houses four historical telescopes. On this page you can learn more about them.

By effectively integrating word-class scientific research and excellent education, you will become a professional astronomer with an internationally recognized degree.

What is the Electronics Department?

By effectively integrating word-class scientific research and excellent education, you will become a professional astronomer with an internationally recognized degree.

In Germany, the United States and even in Vietnam: all over the world, the Leiden discovery of the birth of two planets was shared. Astronomer Sebastiaan Haffert and his team were able to record multiple planets in the making for the first time and published their findings in Nature Astronomy. A unique…

Stefano Pollas master thesis 'Quantum Digital Cooling' has been awarded the Lorentz Master thesis award. The award, 3000 euros and a certificate, has been awarded on 25 November at the Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij van Wetenschappen (KHMW) society in Haarlem.

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

Struinen in het historische centrum, de faculteit ontdekken en natuurlijk chillen aan het strand. Honderden eerstejaars leren in de HOP-week elkaar en hun nieuwe stad kennen. Voor veel studenten is de week een 'gamechanger'.

Smiling faces, a mass dance and a bit of awkwardness: after two ‘corona editions’ of EL CID, the Leiden introduction week is back with a vengeance this year. A total of 3,412 first-year students from Leiden University and University of Applied Sciences Leiden, accompanied by 486 mentors, started EL…

More than 700 visitors got to know the Science Faculty during the Leiden Science Family Day. People of all ages could enjoy fascinating experiments, tours, interesting lectures, spectacular nitrogen shows and various workshops. It was an informative day with many (future) scientists, amazement and,…

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

In 2021 many of our students and staff won fantastic prizes and were awarded important research grants. This is our traditional review of these successes as the end of one year marks the beginning of another.

To be eligible for Astronomy at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Astronomy and Education at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

Lecture, Paneldiscussion

Lecture, Workshop Series

Julia Cramer is the winner of NWO's Minerva Prize for 2017. Cramer will receive the prize for her research in the field of quantum science and technology.

Hoping to learn something about the human brain, Leiden researchers are creating a setup to shoot single photons, particles of light, into someone’s eye. ‘The eye is a passageway to the brain.’

The Science faculties of Universitas Indonesia (UI) and the Universiteit Leiden signed agreements on Tuesday April 12 that will strengthen cooperation between the Faculties. The agreements were signed at the closing of a two day visit of a delegation from Indonesia. The delegation, which was led by…

Graphene and other layered materials combine into completely new substances. Leiden physicists establish the ground rules for designing such materials by measuring how the layers in the stack interact. Publication on November 29 in Nature Communications.

There are miniaturisation beams, microrobots, and ice skaters who suddenly drop into a hole in the ice. Students of the local MBO Rijnland let their imagination run free while animating Leiden physics research. The result is eleven surprising and very diverse science animations.

The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) will start construction this year of the largest non-profit stem cell and gene therapy facility in the Netherlands, and one of the largest facilities in Europe. NECSTGEN – the Netherlands Center for the Clinical Advancement of Stem Cell and Gene Therapies…

The fastest chemical reaction in the universe takes place inside our eyes.

Leiden physicists and international colleagues from Geneva and Barcelona have confirmed the mechanism that makes magic-angle graphene superconducting. This is a key step in elucidating high-temperature superconductivity, a decades-old mystery central to physics, which may lead to technological break…

The seventh Leiden wall formula has been finished. Over the last few weeks, mural artists Ben Walenkamp and Jan Willem Bruins have painted Christiaan Huygens' pendulum formula on 'De Brandmeester' an old drill and hose tower in de Plaatsteeg, just behind the Breestraat in Leiden.

On Thursday 3 November Leiden University will celebrate the official opening of two wall formulas in the city centre. As of now, Snell’s law and the Lorentz force formula shine on two walls in the heart of Leiden. They are part of a project to display at least ten groundbreaking formulas with a Leiden…

For the first time, physicists have visualized the ‘melting’ of electrons inside a special class of insulators. It allows electrons to move freely and turns the insulator into a metal and possibly later into a superconductor. Publication in Nature Physics.

Not only does she excel at her research, she is also active in outreach and started a collaboration outside her own field during her PhD. Yevheniia Cheipesh has been awarded the first prize in the For Women in Science Rising Talent Prize by L’Oreal, UNESCO and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and…

An international group of scientists, led by Leiden physicist Sense Jan van der Molen, has developed the first switchable molecular diode. You can turn this on and off through humidity. Vice versa, it is a humidity sensor at the nanoscale. Publication on 4 December in Nature Nanotechnology.

Ionic liquids are important in scientific research because they can apply a lot of charge over a surface. Leiden physicists have now found that the charging process of ionic liquids purely depends on opposite charges attracting each other. Chemical reactions are sometimes involved, but not essential.…

Radio telescope LOFAR maps the sky. It produces incredibly detailed images of the universe - and vast amounts of data. Huub Röttgering, director of the Leiden Observatory, talks about the challenges of working with those enormous datasets.

On Friday 28 October, Leiden University organized its annual Physics Ladies Day for female high school students. To mark this festive day, we put the spotlight on four female researchers, who talk about their experiences in physics.

Leiden Physicists have developed a new technique to visualize electrical conductance in sheet-like nano materials. It shows great promise for devices based on a new family of materials—the ‘Van der Waals materials’. The physicists, who won the 2015 Dutch Vacuum Society prize for their work, present…

Although smartphones and other consumer cameras are increasingly used for scientific applications like citizen science, it’s still difficult to compare and combine data from different devices. PhD student Olivier Burggraaff developed a new easy-to-use standardised method which makes it possible for…

Former PhD student Cameron Mackie will been awarded not one, but two dissertation prizes for his thesis on the aromatic universe. His work could provide us with a virtual sniff of space. ‘These molecules in space likely smell like a big charcoal grill!’

Thirty years ago, pioneers of the internet expected that this new technology would be a force for freedom, democracy, justice and peace. Yet today digital communications often involve human rights abuses, criminal activity, disinformation, gender-based violence, and cyber warfare. How can we turn these…

Electrons in graphene behave like light particles; they have no mass and can penetrate everything: very useful if you dream about nano-electronics. But you do have to channel them. Carlo Beenakker will be researching how. He has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of 1.5 million euro to carry out this…

Leiden University celebrated its 444th anniversary with a historical procession on 8 February. It celebrated this year’s Dies Natalis in time-honoured fashion with a ceremony in the Pieterskerk, but broke with tradition by sending professors out to primary schools.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded Vidi grants to Leiden researchers.