This November, Leiden Jewish Studies Network has presented the Best Thesis in Jewish Studies award to a highly talented Leiden graduate, Lotte-Sofie Groenendijk, and awarded an honourable mention to Nasreen Javanjoo.

‘Ordinary citizens’ are featuring more prominently in foreign policies which has already resulted in some unexpected outcomes such as Brexit. Jan Melissen, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) conducts research into the societisation of diplomacy. He is interested in…

Lecture

On Friday 7 March 2025 Adam Knight successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

North Korea may seem like an isolated country but it has strong ties with African regimes. This alliance, which trades in arms despite international sanctions, is increasingly operating out of the liberal world order’s sight, PhD candidate Tycho van der Hoog warns.

Are we going vegetarian this year? Shall we keep the dessert the same? Where do I find inspiration for a festive meal during the holidays? For readers who like to postpone these questions, for those who like to tell a good story with their culinary contribution, or for those who simply want to know…

On Wednesday 14 May 2025 Remzi Çakırlar successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

How can we develop new chemical biology tools and approaches to understand and interfere with glucosylceramide metabolism in relation to Gaucher disease?

Whilst government’s ability to design ‘context-specific’ regional innovation policy is generally assumed to depend on the region’s decision-making power, the aim of this study is to investigate how regional government matters. In order to open up the black box of policy design, the study develops a…

The Board of Governors of Leiden University has confirmed the appointment of Professor André Gerrits (Institute for History, currently in the field of Russian Politics and History) to the field of International Studies and Global Politics, commencing October 1st 2015.

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.V.J. Linnartz, Co-Promotores: H.M. Cuppen, S. Ioppolo

Giovanni Gruni publishes a peer reviewed paper in the Korean Journal of international and Comparative Law.

The urban graveyard presents several studies in which the results of older archaeological and osteoarchaeological research are compared to more recent excavation data from several Dutch, Belgian and Danish cities and towns.

On the 26th of September, Cosmas Rai Amenorvi successfully defended a doctoral thesis. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Cosmas on this achievement!

This thesis describes biochemical investigations of glucocerebrosidase (GBA), the lysosomal β- glucosidase that is deficient in Gaucher disease (GD).

Pharmaceutical companies, governments and the general public have become increasingly aware that animal models used in drug testing lack vital aspects to serve as an accurate representation of human biology. As models of the human body should become more physiologically relevant, animal models no longer…

In this dissertation iron-based homogeneous catalysts were synthesized, characterized and investigated for water oxidation activity.

In the studies described in this study, we introduce a novel ex vivo human skin barrier repair model. To develop this, we removed the upper layer of the skin, the stratum corneum (SC) by a reproducible cyanoacrylate stripping technique.

An archaeological case-study of the Pointe des Châteaux, La Désirade and Les Îles de la Petite Terre micro-region, Guadeloupe, F.W.I.

This thesis investigated miniaturized mass spectrometry (MS)-based analytical methods to address challenges in analyzing biomass-restricted biological samples.

This article by Honorata Mazepus and Florian van Leeuwen in the journal Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions looks at how evaluations of authorities were influenced by four aspects of a governmental response to a hypothetical disaster.

How do Humanitarian Response Organizations (HROs) and Virtual & Technical Communities (V&TCs) collaboratively govern disaster sensemaking processes, and what challenges shape the effectiveness of these collaborations between 2010 and 2016?

Mouse models are commonly used to assess the immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins and to investigate the immunological processes leading to antidrug antibodies. The aim of this work was to develop a transgenic (TG) Balb/c mouse model for evaluating the immunogenicity of recombinant human insulin (insulin)…

In this project we study the properties of statistical- and rule-learning mechanisms in relation to the acquisition and evolution of language. We ask to what extent these mechanisms are unique to humans - or to human language - by comparing the acquisition of vocal structure in two species: humans (infants)…

The main subject of this thesis is the design and synthesis of paramagnetic molecules for protein studies with NMR and EPR spectroscopy.

Of all the mass in our Universe, 80% is thought to consist of a hypothetical and invisible substance called dark matter (DM).

This paper describes two synthetic lipid models designed to replace human stratum corneum (SC) in studies of the impact of volatile organic chemicals on the molecular organization of the skin barrier lipids.

The endocannabinoid receptors CB1R and CB2R are involved in a plethora of processes, and consequently are involved in many pathological conditions. Their wide distribution makes the CBRs both an interesting therapeutic target and hard to study.

Spectroscopic studies on fluorescent single molecules in organic condensed matter does not only provide information about the molecule itself, but also its near environment. By suppression of phonon-induced broadening of spectral lines through cooling to low temperatures, small changes in the spectral…

Atherosclerosis is the most important underlying process that drives cardiovascular disease, and is characterized by an accumulation of cholesterol which triggers an inflammatory response in the vessel wall.

β-Lactamases are enzymes that can break down β-lactam substrates, such as antibiotics, preventing the use of these antibiotics for the treatment of various infectious diseases. However, some compounds, β-lactamase inhibitors, can block these enzymes allowing for possible treatments using a combination…

Structure-affinity relationship (SAR) and structure-kinetics relationship (SKR) studies were combined to investigate a series of biphenyl anthranilic acid agonists for the HCA2 receptor.

This dissertation defends the existence of a type of movement that has so far been considered not to be possible, namely, movement of a bare head to a specifier position over arbitrarily long distances.

Organised in four separate sessions throughout the day, and broadcast live online to guests and families who could not join, a total of 260 students received their Bachelor’s Diploma of International Studies on 28 August 2020 at the graduation ceremony in the historic Pieterskerk in Leiden.

On Tuesday 3 September 2024 Straton Papagianneas successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

On Friday 22 November 2024 Ye Jiang successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The university is home to many pearls of research institutes that do not make the news every day. The Executive Board visited one such pearl, the Institute of Philosophy, on Tuesday 1 July. It resulted in an inspired conversation.

The Security Studies bachelor's programme has received a bronze medal in EW Best Studies 2023. Every year, EW Best Studies selects the top programmes in Dutch higher education.

Organised in three separate sessions throughout the day, and broadcast live online to guests and families who could not join, over 200 students received their Bachelor’s Diploma of International Studies on 3 September 2021 at the graduation ceremony in the historic Pieterskerk in Leiden.

Lodewijk Petram, author of the book 'The World's First Stock Exchange', discussed the rise of the Amsterdam stock exchange in the 17th century in the ninth Hazelhoff Guest Lecture.

The one-year master in South Asian Studies, a specialisation of Leiden University’s master in Asian Studies, offers a large and varied selection of subjects and the freedom to choose the areas on which you will focus.

History is being taught at Leiden University since the days of Justus Lipsius [1547-1606]. In 1860, following the appointment of Robert Fruin as Leiden professor of Dutch History, modern historical investigation started in the Netherlands.

Why would someone choose to learn a language like Arabic? For Wessam Semida, teacher at the Academic Language Centre (ATC), the answer goes far beyond grammar and vocabulary. 'It really opens your perspective on life,' she explains. 'Language is a key to understanding people, cultures, and different…

On Friday 16 May Juul Eijk successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.