At Orientation Week Leiden, a record 1,378 new international students got to know the city and one another. From a cracking karaoke party to fishing plastic out of the canals – see what they got up to in the photos!

In 1925, two young physicists from Leiden University, George Uhlenbeck and Samuel Goudsmit, proposed a radical idea: spin. Their bold hypothesis quickly came to play a key role in physics and formed the basis for later breakthroughs in quantum mechanics. We are celebrating the anniversary of this discovery…

The Faculty of Science is located at the Leiden Bio Science Park. It was founded more than two centuries ago and currently, more than 8000 people are working and studying at the eight institutes.

Combining different disciplines, researchers work together to formulate innovative solutions to societal problems.

Twenty years from now, the world population is estimated to be around 9 billion people (now 8 billion). In combination with the improvements in living standards and the corresponding growth in consumption, this population will result in an enormous increase in the demand for food, consumables, water…

Promotor: H.J.M. de Groot

The long term goal of the Biophysical Organic Chemistry/SSNMR group, headed by Prof. Huub de Groot, is to reach an understanding of structure, dynamics and functional mechanisms of membrane proteins and self-organized biological assemblies and to translate this knowledge into new concepts for nano-devices,…

By detecting the tiny forces between a micrometer sized magnet and the spins of hydrogen nuclei, we can do MRI with a volume resolution that is approximately 12 orders of magnitude better than a conventional MRI.  

We review the state-of-the-art in the theory of dissociative chemisorption (DC) of small gas phase molecules on metal surfaces, which is important to modeling heterogeneous catalysis for practical reasons, and for achieving an understanding of the wealth of experimental information that exists for this…

At Leiden Observatory, researchers investigate the origin of stars and their planetary systems. They detect and characterize planets around other stars (exoplanets). They study how stars and planets form. And they follow molecules from interstellar clouds to nascent planet systems. This way they address…

Are you in a position of talent coach, coordinator, mentor, dean, or teacher and looking for university programmes that provide an extra challenge for the students of your school? The Leiden University Honours Academy provides such a programme, where vwo-students from the final three years of high school…

'Technology, law and justice' is one of Leiden Law School's four research focus areas.

LIACS is committed to inclusive work and study experiences, respectful of all students and staff, and free of discrimination, harassment, bullying, or retaliation. An inclusive and respectful atmosphere is vital to free expression and the open exchange of ideas.

Your time at Leiden is about more than just studying. Some of your best experiences will stem from being a part of our lively and diverse student community, as well as from life in the beautiful city of Leiden.

The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) of Leiden University and Art Institute West Den Haag are pleased to announce their close collaboration in the second season of the public series In the Making. This series, dedicated to the practice of research in the arts, will consist of seven public…

The master’s specialisation Research in Theoretical Physics prepares you for a PhD position in theoretical physics. The research entails a broad range of topics including High Energy Physics and Particle Cosmology, Theoretical Physics of Life Processes and Condensed Matter Theory.

The War and Peace Studies track offers you a comprehensive understanding of the historical, theoretical, and practical dimensions of war and peace, while addressing the complex challenges of conflict and peacebuilding in the contemporary world.

Minims are letters that are made up of short, vertical pen strokes, such as 'm', 'i', 'n' and 'u'. In Gothic script, there is often little distinction between letters composed of minims. Assistant professor of medieval literature Krista Murchison has written an article in History Today on the hidden…

The discovery that eleven asteroids might collide with our Earth has become world news. The research of three Leiden astronomers has appeared on more than 190 news sites worldwide, from America to China. They developed and trained an artificial neural network for this discovery.

The transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic is a major biological and cultural threshold in the construction of our common humanity. Technological and behavioral changes happened simultaneously to a major climatic cooling, forcing human populations to develop new strategies for the exploitation…

The METIS instrument that’s being built for ESO's future Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in Northern Chile under the leadership of the Dutch Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) has reached an important milestone: the preliminary design has been approved.

Professor Joanna Aizenberg (Harvard University) is the recipient of the 2017 Havinga Medal. She is awarded for her eminent and original contributions to the field of biologically inspired materials science.

The design for the METIS instrument for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is final. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has given the green light for production of all parts of the instrument. It is the first ELT instrument, designed and to be built under Dutch leadership, to formally pass the…

Astronomers Professor Christoph Keller and Dr Frans Snik will be developing a commercial module for measuring fine particulates. They have been awarded an STW Demonstrator subsidy of 138,000 euros.

Four scientists from Leiden University have each been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This grant, worth up to two million euros, gives researchers the opportunity to head up a research team for five years.

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On the evening of Tuesday January 31st, the physics institute organizes its triannual meeting for over seventy high school teachers. The program consists of lectures on developments in modern physics and the latest initiatives in the world of education.

A preliminary CEFR-companion has been published.

A MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is a free online course available for anyone to enroll. The Orpheus Institute announces its first MOOC on Artistic Research in Music, which will offer an introduction to the most relevant research tools, techniques and methodologies as well as the key concepts of…

Language is a little bit like owning a mobile phone. We use it all the time, but we don’t really understand how it works. Where is language located in our brain? Do all humans have language? These and many other questions will be answered by professor Marc van Oostendorp in the MOOC Miracles of Human…

On 14 November 2022, the GTGC team met with seed grant holders to discuss how the seed grant projects are progressing. The seed grant holders presented an introduction about their projects along with an overview of their execution. The seed grant holders received questions from the workshop attendees…

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2020, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

Les Cottés is one the rare site in western Europe with occupations in sequence by the very last Neandertals and the first anatomically modern humans.

The Cyber Security lecturers are scholars and lecturers of Leiden University, Delft University of Technology and The Hague University of Applied Sciences.

Stack two layers of graphene, twisted at slightly different angles to each other, and the material spontaneously becomes a superconductor. Science still can't explain how something so magical can happen, but physicists use special equipment to reveal what is taking place under the surface.

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The alignment of the James Webb Space Telescope is complete. The space observatory is able to capture sharp, well-directed images with each of its four powerful scientific instruments on board. The MIRI instrument, on which Professor of Molecular Astrophysics Ewine van Dishoeck also worked, was the…

Biophysicist Rolf Harkes has developed a microscope to optically localize individual molecules in living cells. It improves monitoring of diseases like cancer and Parkinson’s at the cellular level. Defende PhD thesis on t13 January 2016.

On September 12, Michel Orrit received his Spinoza prize in the Royal Theatre in The Hague from OCW Secretary of State Sander Dekker. With the award comes a budget of 2.5 million euro, to be spent freely on scientific research, and the coveted Spinoza statue. Orrit shared the honor with Eveline Crone…

The GTGC team met on Friday 10 September 2021 with seed grant holders to discuss how the seed grant projects are progressing. The seed grant holders presented an introduction about their projects along with an overview of their execution. The seed grant holders received questions from the workshop attendees…

Why do we need fundamental science? For a lot of reasons, speakers showed at the Lustrum Symposium ‘Science Matters’. This symposium was held on 18 March 2016 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Faculty of Science.

On this page you will find an overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2024, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2019, as well as special appointments and royal distinctions.

Want to find out how to assemble a human skeleton? Do you know what chemistry can be found around you? And are you easily fooled by fake news? Discover this and more at our Science Fair on 3 October.

PhD defence

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