De opening of the Academic Year 2022-2023 took place on Monday 5 September 2022 in Pieterskerk church.

Every year around 8 February, Leiden University, the oldest university in the Netherlands, is celebrating its birthday. Why does the King still receive a telegram on the day of the Dies Natalis? 4 questions on the origins of Leiden University and its traditions for celebrating its foundation day.

Changing the world (a little bit)

On 17 October 2018, Thomas Sanders defended his doctoral thesis 'Invordering door de overheid: de invordering van geldschulden uit herstelsancties onder de Awb'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. mr. T. Barkhuysen and Prof. mr. M.W. Scheltema.

Michiel Pronk defended his thesis on 30 March 2016

University ceremony

The LUCDH foster the development of new digital research by awarding a number of Small Grants each year. As in previous years the LUCDH received a large number of excellent grant applications for Research and Personal Development funds. Congratulations to the recipients of this year's research award…

Leiden University will award two honorary doctorates at its Dies Natalis on 9 February 2026. They will go to internet studies scholar Safiya Umoja Noble and philosopher Catherine Malabou.

Last week, the Old Observatory Leiden concluded its participation in Stage 1 of the DOORS Incubation Programme. Our team has spent the last three months learning about how to successfully implement digital practices into their work to improve our audience engagement. The workshops introduced important…

From ransomware to Citrix traffic jams: over the past few months Dutch organisations were regularly brought to a standstill by serious cyber attacks. We can only face these threats by standing as one, and universities and government should take the lead. These are the words of Leiden professors Bibi…

In the Surveillance and Security Threat Monitor 2022-2023, the research project thematically examined threat developments.

On May 9th 2023, LUGO hosted its big Sustainability Day Event, on the theme: the planetary boundaries! The event, which took place at the Academy Building in Leiden, included an opening talk by Prof.dr.ing. Jan Willem Erisman, among others. At the closing, LUGO also awarded its first place prize for…

Announcement

Noah Millman defended his thesis on 26 May 2015

PhD defence

Wat betekent het om alumni te zijn aan de Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid? Naast een maandelijks blad en een groot netwerk organiseert de faculteit ook jaarlijks het alumni-evenement ‘Leiden Revisited’. Wie zijn deze alumni en waarom blijven zij graag actief?

On Thursday the 29th of October, Kennis Maken Den Haag organises the third edition of Den Haag Draait Door. In this online talk show, experts and policymakers will discuss problems that exist in the city of The Hague. During this edition, as usual, students, researchers and residents from the region…

‘Dutch municipalities’ backroom meetings a massive breach of the law’ was the main headline of Dutch newspaper De Stentor on 24 June 2022. According to investigative journalist Gep Leeflang, Dutch municipalities continuously break the law by holding their municipal council meetings behind closed doors.…

In the Criminal Justice research programme, (criminal) law researchers and social scientists – many of whom are criminologists – collaborate on various projects. The research programme focuses on the content and form of decisions that could be, should be and are taken in by actors in the criminal justice…

In the tv show 'De wereld draait door' of Tuesday 4 February, Prof. Hendrik Lenstra, together with Prof. Barry Koren, gave an explaination of the so-called 'Millenium Problems'.

What is it like to participate in the Erasmus+ grant programme as a Master's student from Ukraine? Yevhenii Radchenko did an eight-month internship at Leiden University in 2018. Soon after, he returned as a PhD candidate. 'You have little to lose, but a lot to gain.'

Portraits of six Leiden professors for whom 8 February 2016 was the first time that they took part in the procession of Leiden professors at the Dies Natalis.

De Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen keert, daartoe in staat gesteld door het Jan Brouwer Fonds, jaarlijks acht scriptieprijzen van elk 2.000 euro uit voor de geestes- en maatschappijwetenschappen. Deadline voor nominaties: 7 oktober 2022.

Together with colleagues from the Stimson Center and in the framework of the Global Governance Innovation Network, Dr. Joris Larik has recently published the report

Political scientist Tim Mickler (Leiden University) receives a grant from The Dutch Research Council (NWO) for his quantitative research into post-parliamentary positions of parliamentarians. The grant is a result of the SGW Open Competition XS, with the aim of stimulating innovative scientific rese…

University ceremony

At the Dies Natalis Willem Otterspeer, Professor Emeritus of University History, presented the fourth and final volume of Groepsportret met Dame, his series on the history of Leiden University. De 'Strategie van de Aanpassing' covers the period 1876-1975. Otterspeer talked about his book in a podcast…

Abbas provides an in-depth analysis of the complex interplay between Zionism, Jewish identity, power dynamics, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On 8 February 2016, Dr Jennifer Tour Chayes, Director of Microsoft Research in Boston and New York, will be presented with a Leiden honorary doctorate by Frank den Hollander, Professor of Probability Theory and Statistical Physics.

‘Big Tech heeft de democratische staat op feodale wijze aan zich onderworpen’, schrijft universitair docent Reijer Passchier in zijn nieuw verschenen boek De vloek van Big Tech. In NRC waarschuwt de docent voor de groeiende macht van techgiganten.

Agressief gedrag van gedetineerden is sterk te verlagen met een aantal aanpassingen in het dagelijkse regime in penitentiaire inrichtingen. Dit blijkt uit de evaluatie van een experiment met een alternatief detentieregime, uitgevoerd door Tilburg University en de Universiteit Leiden.

Alumni event

On the university’s birthday, professors teach a class of 10 and 11-year-olds during Meet the Professor. The professors were bombarded with questions.

Over 1,200 children from junior schools in Leiden and The Hague were taught by a real professor on the university's anniversary.

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.

For the fifth year in succession, on the foundation day of the university, Leiden professors taught a lesson at primary schools as part of the ‘Meet the Professor’ programme.

American anthropologist Rosemary Joyce will be awarded an honorary doctorate from Leiden University on its Dies Natalis on 8 February. Joyce has delivered important new insights into the ancient Mayan cultures of Central America.

In this article, Thijs van Dooremalen and Philip Smith investigate how public discourse of heatwaves have shifted in British newspaper discourse, drawing on Raymond Williams’s theory of dominant, emergent, and residual cultural patterns to analyse changes in language and interpretation over recent d…

Tirza Cramwinckel, Assistant Professor in tax law, has won one of the 2023 Research Prizes awarded by the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation.

The celebration of Leiden's Dies Natalis on Monday 9 February in the Pieterskerk was extra special this year and was attended by many prominent guests. This was the kick-off of the special 88th Lustrum (five-year) celebrations in 2015.

Is my cap on straight? Where in the cortège will I be walking? These are some of the questions asked by professors joining the Dies Natalis procession for the first time.

With the official launch of the Al-Babtain Leiden University Centre for Arabic Culture, Leiden University and the AbdulAziz Saud Al-Babtain Cultural Foundation have opened the door for new opportunities of cultural and academic exchange. Have a look at last week's festivities.

A school lesson by a professor, for instance about the history of Africa, the climate or research and healthcare. A hundred Leiden professors told primary school children about their work in the Meet the Professor project.

Maarten Feteris, the former president of the Court of Appeal and an alumnus of Leiden University, composed the piece ‘Intermezzo’ to mark the transfer of the rectorate during the Dies Natalis on 8 February 2021.

Carel Stolker, former Rector Magnificus and President of the Executive Board of Leiden University, has been made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for his services to the city and University. Mayor Henri Lenferink awarded the royal honour to Stolker at the University’s Dies Natalis on 8 February…

‘Praesidium Libertatis is a daily responsibility.’ These were the words of Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker on 8 February during the 443rd Dies Natalis of Leiden University. The University needs to pay continuous attention to open debate if it wants to remain a bastion of freedom.

Laura Kamsma (31) has been coordinating the International Office (IO) of FGGA for a few months now. An introduction to the ambitious Nijmegen native, who has set herself the goal of making the International Office more visible: 'Knock on our door if you have an internationalisation issue. Now you can…

Leiden University will confer an honorary doctorate on astrophysicist Sara Seager for her work on exoplanets.