There seem to be genes that influence how our brains develop over time. A large international consortium has discovered this with an extensive study. The results of the study were recently published in Nature Neuroscience.

Rafaëlle Kwakkel is currently studying Literary Studies: Literature in Society. In addition to her studies, she works at Studium Generale and enjoys being creative.

Tech giants such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft are increasingly shaping the digital world we live in. Reijer Passchier cautions: 'Urgent measures are needed to curb this influence.'

China is actively attempting to silence critical voices about the country, including in the Netherlands. This is the main conclusion of a report on Chinese interference and intimidation within the Dutch media landscape. The media are often not well prepared for this.

Sara Polak, American Studies expert and University Lecturer investigates how American presidents deal with the media and how new, social media influence our collective memory and the political game. ‘Social media algorithms influence us and our political choices in ways we do not foresee’, Polak say…

The public are experiencing the effects of international policy more directly and the contacts between citizens and civil servants are also changing. Read about the impact of these developments in the new research dossier on 'Governance and Society'.

Andrew DJ Shield (History) and Ann Marie Wilson (Leiden University College) have been awarded a seed grant for their project, “Transnational Gay/Lesbian Activism since the 1960s.” Granted: €3000.

PhD candidate at the Parenting, Child Care and Development programme group Wei Li examined longitudinally the role of parents in self-regulation of young children in the Netherlands and China during their first two years of life. Li also specifically focused on the role of grandparents in China. This…

On 7 March, Carlos Roos (lecturer, philosopher, researcher) gave a talk about popular music at Utrecht University, organized by the education committee of Study Association Hucbald (Musicology at Utrecht University).

A study in the Behavioral Biology group of Carel ten Cate at the IBL showed that experience-dependent and -independent preferences influence song learning in zebra finches.

Zijn corona-complotten waanzin? Jelle van Buuren, universitair docent bij het Institute of Security and Global Affairs van de Universiteit Leiden, discussieert in de online talkshow De Groene Live #25 vanuit Pakhuis de Zwijger over dit thema.

Jan Erk, political scientist at Leiden University, has been selected as the 2016-2017 Smuts Memorial Fellow at the University of Cambridge. During his residency at the renowned British academy, he will work on his research project ‘The Enduring Impact of Africa’s extinct kingdoms and invisible chief…

At the international Flux Society Congress 2022 in Paris, Lina van Drunen won the prize for best poster with her PhD research on how music influences brain development. At this annual congress, scientists and psychologists from around the world share their latest findings on developmental cognitive…

Reijer Passchier, universitair docent Staatsrecht en hoogleraar Digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU, verzorgde op 20 maart jl. een actualiteitencollege over de macht van Big Tech, dat het Montesquieu Instituut, in samenwerking met de Academie voor de Rechtsstaat organiseerde.

On 25 November 2019, Christa Tobler gave a lecture on

On 23 and 24 November scholars working on European Justice and Home Affairs, united at the European University Institute in Florence on the occassion of the 25th year jubilee of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. The EU policy area covering migration, asylum and criminal justice cooperation.

Reijer Passchier, hoogleraar digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de Open Universiteit en universitair docent staatsrecht in Leiden, waarschuwt in een opiniestuk in de Volkskrant, voor de alsmaar toenemende invloed van grote technologiebedrijven ten koste van de democratische rechtssta…

The research of the Mathematical Institute is driven by the curiosity of its members and has many internal and external connections. It can be characterised as fundamental but with an open attitude towards applications.

Bribing a politician to gain influence or making sure friends end up in powerful positions: Brazilian energy companies use these power strategies daily.

Future technologies will drastically influence our daily lives. To what extent will that benefit us? The Brave New World future congress on 2 and 3 November in Leiden will reveal a range of different scenarios, some optimistic and some worrying.

Audrey Heijns explored the mindset of alumnus Henri Borel. From 1894 to 1916 he was an interpreter of Chinese and later a government officer for Chinese affairs in the Dutch East Indies. Borel's way of 'translating' Chinese was both unique and inimitable. PhD defence on 28 June.

The widespread idea that politics is mediatised needs to be revised. Although media attention heavily influences some political processes, this is not the case when it comes to lawmaking. Lotte Melenhorst, a political scientist at Leiden University, analysed three heavily covered legislative processes…

Leiden researchers Arko Ghosh and Enea Ceolini analysed the usage data of hundreds of mobile phones and discovered that our body has rhythms ranging between 7 and 52 days. These cycles influence how we behave. Their research resulted in an article in npj Digital Medicine journal, a Nature Portfolio…

How do opinions form and change in large groups of people? That's not just a sociological question, it's a mathematical one. PhD candidate Federico Capannoli studied opinion dynamics. He defended his thesis on November 19.

Fifteen hundred years ago, the north-west of what we now call China was a jumble of peoples. How did those Indians, Khotanese and Tocharians influence each other and each other's languages? Associate professor Michaël Peyrot has been awarded an ERC grant of almost two million euros to unravel this 'web…

Minority governments only become an option when attempts to form a government collapse. PhD candidate Corné Smit explored why such governments have become rare in the Netherlands and what advantages they might offer. ‘Broad majority coalitions often fail to make substantial progress on key issues.’

Current electrochemical theory does not adequately describe realistic platinum electrodes. Scientists at Leiden University have now, for the first time, mapped the influence of imperfect platinum surfaces. This provides a more accurate picture of these electrodes, with applications in hydrogen production…

Two years after launching an ERC Starting Grant to investigate cultural stereotyping in European Union governance, Adina Akbik and Christina Toenshoff at Leiden University are now publishing their first major findings. Looking at public opinion across the EU, the researchers show that cultural stereotypes…

Medieval Memoria Research has published its final newsletter. This special MeMO-themed issue contains several articles about the MeMO project and its influence on the work of various scholars.

Members of our research team give different types of presentations and lectures.

PhD candidates from Institutions for Conflict Resolution (COI), Eva Grosfeld (Leiden University), Marlou Overheul (Utrecht University), and Amarins Jansma (social psychology, Utrecht University), won the KLI seed money grant for research on the influence of politically sensitive cases on public trust…

On 14 and 15 September, the 'Lobbying the Courts' workshop took place in Paris. This was an interdisciplinary workshop in which researchers from different disciplines came together to brainstorm on whether, how, and when interest groups focus on the judicial process and the courts in their lobbying…

Fatemeh (Simin) Tabassi Mofrad has recently received a project grant (€ 25,000) from LUF/Gratama Foundation for her ideas in investigating sex-by-genotype interactions in brain functions. She has a multidisciplinary research perspective which enables her to look at research issues from different angles.…

Professor of Korean Studies Remco Breuker has been awarded a subsidy from the European Research Council to study the dispute between both Koreas and China on the history of Manchuria.

Movement behaviours, such as physical activity, sleep, and the amount of time we sit each day, impact our health. Recently, more researchers are looking at the influence of these behaviours combined, but this is a challenging task. For example, it is difficult to monitor in what way movement behaviours…

In a recent EUobserver opinion article, Salvador Santino Regilme, warns that Europe faces a crisis of legitimacy if it continues to ignore the structural influence of billionaires and oligarchic interests within its institutions.

On 10 October 2018 Cees de Groot and Jelle Nijland organized a round-table-symposium ‘Government and private governance’ for experts in the field of private governance issues. This day was made possible by the LUF. The main objective of the symposium was to brainstorm with experts from various backgrounds,…

Grote technologiebedrijven hebben zoveel macht dat ze functioneren als staten zonder democratische controle. Volgens Reijer Passchier, universitair docent staatsrecht en hoogleraar digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat (OU), vormt dat een groeiend risico voor de rechtsstaat en vergroot het…

Groeninx said goodbye to Leiden University on Thursday, 15 December during the symposium ‘H2020 Academy – Influencing H2020 and the next framework programme’. For almost fifteen years, she has been involved in European projects at the university’s Knowledge Exchange Office Luris.

The Huizinga Institute offers an online masterclass that explores how material, visual, and paratextual elements in manuscripts and printed books developed between 1400 and 1600, and how this influenced the ways in which readers navigated the book and experienced the text it contained. Deadline for…

A new treatment for atherosclerosis showed promising results in isolated cells but proved to be less effective in initial animal tests. Bachelor student Biopharmaceutical Sciences Willemijn van der Heijden aimed to understand why. She investigated whether the formation of a protein layer around the…

‘It was a complete surprise to me to find the Emerald Citation of Excellence certificate in my pigeonhole,’ says Natascha van der Zwan. Her article ‘Making sense of Financialization’ has received an honourable mention from Emerald Publishing because it is used all over the world for research and edu…

If three or more objects move around each other, history cannot be reversed. That is the conclusion of an international team of researchers based on computer simulations of three black holes orbiting each other. The researchers, led by the Dutch astronomer Tjarda Boekholt, publish their findings in…

It's pretty hard to spot a single 5 nanometer particle. Leiden physicists pulled it off by turning a 120 nm gold rod into a detector.