This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of the Leiden University Medical Center with the University of Indonesia.

How did local lifeways and crafting practices persist and develop in the diverse environments of the increasingly interconnected Gulf of Fonseca (AD 400-1521)?

All players on the world stage operate strategically in order to safeguard their interests. Political scientists at Leiden University cast light on this volatile interplay of forces. Their research helps voters, NGOs, governments and international organizations make smart choices in this complex and…

Dutch archaeologists are making three-dimensional virtual reconstructions of archaeological objects lost in the Syrian civil war.

A post-colonial approach to the concept of time in the past and present Maya culture

The acquisition and administration of the possessions of the “Teutonic House” in Utrecht, and its dependencies, in the Middle Ages until c.1600.

A linguistic reconstruction of the migration of the Tocharians from Europe to China

There’s more to obtaining a bachelor’s or master’s degree than just studying. For example, where can you go for advice, or to let off some steam, practise your favourite sport, stay in shape, socialise, or simply find some peace and quiet? Leiden University can help in all these areas, and more.

Fieldwork

From 1 August 2018, Alanna O'Malley was appointed as Chair of United Nations Studies in Peace and Justice, focusing on the ‘lesser-known actors’ of the UN: women, the youth, the agents of informal diplomatic networks within the UN and actors from the Global South. This Special Chair has been created…

The annual Hugo Sinzheimer Moot Court competition took place in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 19 to 21 June 2025. Twelve student teams from various European countries took part in the labour law moot court competition.

Marius Staring, Associate Professor at the LUMC has been awarded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funding for further development of image processing software Elastix

An international team of astronomers has shown that a white dwarf and a red dwarf orbiting each other every two hours are emitting radio pulses. Through the discovery, astronomers now know that the monopoly on bright radio bursts is not solely held by neutron stars. The team of international scientists…

A lecturer winning a prize, an expert appearing in the media or a professor giving their inaugural speech: these are faces we often see. But we rarely see the staff who work behind the scenes to make their work possible. They are now featured in the photo exhibition ‘The forces behind the faces’.

Leiden archaeologists have been digging into the municipality of Oss’s past for 50 years now and students have gained their first experience of fieldwork there. What is the result of half a century of research and teaching? Archaeologist Richard Jansen and his students take us to the largest excavation…

On Friday 13 May, President Xu Xianming of Shandong University (SDU) visited Leiden. Leiden University and Shandong University have a long-lasting partnership, a co-operation that was recently reinforced by the setting up of the Confucius Institute in Leiden (CILU) during Prof. Van der Heijden’s visit…

In this new four CD box set release sonatas of the relatively unknown French composer Jean Daniel Braun have been recorded by ACPA's Jed Wentz and Dutch ensemble Musica ad Rhenum.

Professor of Molecular Astrophysics Ewine van Dishoeck is portrayed as a heroine in a pictorial children's book. ‘It starts with a dream' tells the stories of twenty exceptional Dutch women who have had a positive impact on society. The book aims to give young girls role models and encourage them to…

The Rutte IV cabinet will be sworn in soon. A fifth of the prospective ministers and secretaries of state studied in Leiden. Who are they and what did they study?

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research has awarded dr. Geeske Langejans a Veni grant for the research project What's in a plant? Tracking early human behaviour through plant processing and exploitation.

Help us develop and expand the recently established Leiden Chinese Queer Collection (LCQC, 莱顿华语酷儿文献收藏) at Leiden University Libraries (UBL).

Nadine Akkerman and her co-applicant David van der Linden (University of Groningen) are thrilled that “Signed, Sealed, & Undelivered 2.0: Revealing Hidden Letters” was awarded an Internationalisation in the Humanities grant from NWO.

From July 25th till August 7th, a team led by Professor Marie Soressi went to France and worked at La Grande Roche de Quinçay, a cave site located in a forested area close to the city of Poitiers. The corona outbreak triggered the need to rethink the organisation of the excavation.

In 2024, Professor Joanita Vroom received a substantial grant from the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) in support for her Hinterlands of Medieval Chalcis Project (HMC Project) in Greece. PHI, a California-based non-profit organization, is dedicated to archaeological research as well as to the preservation…

On 13 May 2025, Melanie Fink presented her latest research on the role of the duty to reason and other explanation rights to safeguard human dignity in the automated state at the AI & Law Summer School hosted by the University of Tübingen.

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 Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research has honored the application of Prof. Harry Fokkens for the research project entitled

Stefano Bellucci, university lecturer at the Institute for History, has been awarded a grant by the EAP for a pilot project for the preservation and digitisation of the workers’ files of the Takoradi Railways (now part of the Ghana Railways Corporation).

Extinct hominin DNA extracted from >40,000 years old sediment

We learned of the passing away of Nicolaas Bloembergen, Nobel Prize winner in Physics (1981) at the age of 97.

Nicolaas Bloembergen, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1981, passed away on 5 September in Tucson, Arizona. Bloembergen obtained his PhD on nuclear spin resonance in 1948 at Leiden University. Some articles about his life.

Skandapurāṇa IV presents a critical edition of Adhyāyas 70-95 from the Skandapurāṇa , with an introduction and annotated English synopsis.

The Van Hecke group published in Nature Physics about programmable origami, which was covered in the following media.

NWO has awarded a €392k Projectruimte grant to physicists Koenraad Schalm and Jan Zaanen to study ‘strange metals’. These materials are alleged to follow the bizarre laws of quantum mechanics even at everyday length scales.

Milan Allan has received the Bryan R. Coles Prize at the International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems (SCES) in Prague.

The Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) has awarded Leiden Physics PhD student Anne Meeussen the Shell Graduation Prize in Physics, which comes with 5,000 euro in prize money.

The European Physical Society (EPS) has awarded the Gero Thomas Commemorative Medal 2017 to Jo Hermans, emeritus Professor in Physics. He wins the award for his role as Science Editor of Europhysics News and his numerous contributions to education and public understanding of physics.

World wide press attention for the article and specifically the image of the 30 micrometer long micro boat 3DBenchy by Rachel Doherty, Daniela Kraft and other Leiden physicists.

On 31 January 2014 Professor Willem Heiser (Psychology, Statistics and Data Theory) was awarded the distinction of Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion. After his farewell lecture he received the royal honour for his exceptional academic, social and administrative achievements.

New: Een Podcast over Natuurkunde, a podcast about Leiden physics. In the first episode, Dirk van Delft tells about the Hendrik Antoon Lorentz biography that he wrote with Frits Berends.

On Thursday 28 September at 19:45, tv channel NPO Cultura will broadcast an interview with Michel Orrit about his Spinoza Prize winning research, as part of the series ‘Dankzij Spinoza’.

Resigning scientific director of the physics institute Eric Eliel has received the RISE prize for his outstanding commitment to increasing gender equality.

Master students Lotte Koemans and Mandy Meijer have developed an audio tour which takes you past all six wall formulas in the inner city of Leiden. In this movie, they walk the tour themselves.

Leiden research into the properties of platinum receives a TOP subsidy of 780.000 euros from the The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO. Aim of the project is a more efficient and sustainable use of the rare metal.

The 2018 Physics Nobel Prize is awarded to Arthur Ashkin, Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou for their research on optical tweezers based on lasers. Leiden physicists comment in the following media.

Over the past two years, the Physics department has been supporting high school physics education with a set of challenging quantum experiments. School classes can visit Leiden University to learn about quantum mechanics, in preparation for their final exams. As of early 2018, this lab has evolved into…

An important award like the Spinoza Prize, the 'Dutch Nobel Prize', generates lots of media attention. An overview.

On Wednesday February 7th, Professor Ed Copeland from the University of Nottingham will give the Colloquium Ehrenfestii.