A galaxy is already incredibly large, but it can get even bigger. Astronomer Reinout van Weeren investigates clusters of galaxies, one of the largest structures in the universe. For his research into the origins and evolution of these clusters, he obtained an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros.…

Restoring a natural plant environment on exhausted agricultural lands and in nature areas is difficult. We can speed this up by steering the soils towards the desired situation. This is what Martijn Bezemer, newly appointed Professor of Ecology of Plant-Microbe-Insect interactions at Leiden University’s…

The radio telescope LOFAR, with a major contribution from Leiden Observatory, has produced the most detailed radio map of the Universe ever made. Never before have so many cosmic radio sources been captured in a single survey: 13.7 million.

How did disability become a global concern? In this project we will identify the contribution of international agencies, governmental and non-governmental organizations and, just as importantly, disabled people themselves, to the IYDP and by showing the connections, interactions and entanglements between…

The US-Israeli strikes on Iran have been welcomed by critics of the regime but have also prompted intense concern. They’ve triggered a dangerous domino effect across the region and beyond. Leiden experts share their insights on the potential consequences.

An MRI scanner is much more than a machine alone. It is an extremely versatile technique that provides numerous opportunities for finding out more about the workings of the human brain, says Thijs van Osch, Professor of Radiology, with a particular emphasis on experimental cerebrovascular imaging. Inaugural…

Leiden has the second-highest percentage of female professors of all the Dutch universities. These are the results of the annual Women Professors Monitor. The Open University is the only university with more female professors.

Plants use sunlight to perform photosynthesis, but with too much light they have to dim their activity and protect their cells against photo damage. The protein PsbS acts as a light-stress sensor and plays a key role in this process. Article in Nature’s Scientific Reports.

Bright explosions appear all over the radio and gravitational-wave sky. This dynamic side of the universe which has just been discovered, can be mapped by self-learning machines. The National Science Agenda granted 5 million euro’s to CORTEX, the Center for Optimal, Real-Time Machine Studies of the…

Will Leiden be the first city to have wall poems in sign language? It will, if sign language researcher Victoria Nyst has her way. She recently started a crowdfunding campaign together with the Leiden Language Museum and the TEGEN-BEELD Foundation.

The Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC) is concentrating increasingly on research into the role of the brain in language development. The institute has now set up the LIBC Language website that brings together all the information on this research.

The Netherlands eScience Center has announced to fund a new Path-Finding Project led by Dr. Dorothea Samtleben from the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION). This project aims to make the processing of detection signals more efficient for the KM3NeT neutrino telescope, which is currently under construction…

Using biologically inspired algorithms on 'edge devices', such as cameras and mobile phones, is what Svetlana Minakova's PhD research was all about. She conducted research on Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN). Making these algorithms work in different situations is a complicated task. 'Most design…

After a three-year absence, Lennart Kruijer has returned to the Faculty of Archaeology. He previously completed his PhD within the VICI project Innovating Objects, and now returns as a postdoctoral researcher in the Anchoring Innovation programme.

Please find a list of courses with start dates in September for which there are still spots available. The dates indicate the start date for the course, but note that courses may cover more than 1 session.

On 28 January 2025, Philip Purnell successfully defended his PhD thesis at Leiden University, titled

The International Network for School Attendance launched an inaugural conference in Norway, playing host to 14 countries, 254 participants. Lead of this international network for the Netherlands is psychologist David Heyne of Leiden University.

We need to be quicker and better at discovering side effects. In her inaugural lecture, Agnes Kant, Professor by Special Appointment of Innovation of Pharmacovigilance, calls for more research on these adverse effects.

‘Voor de formatie moeten grote, controversiële beslissingen worden genomen waar een breed draagvlak voor moet zijn. Dat vraagt om goede afspraken en een rustig proces’, zegt Wim Voermans, hoogleraar Staatsrecht, in een uitzending van WNL op Zondag.

In the hunt for new particles, physicists look at ever higher energy particle collisions, moving the energy frontier. Some particles however are elusive not due to their high energy, but because they rarely interact. This raises a new barrier: the intensity frontier.

From 1 August, Hermen Jan Hupkes has been appointed Professor of Non-Linear Analysis at the Mathematical Institute. 'Initially I don't think that much will change,' Hupkes says. 'My research and supervising future researchers will continue as before.'

Two Leiden University research consortia have received funding from the High Tech Systems and Materials programme (HTSM).

Maurijn van der Zee, at the IBL since 2010, investigates how genetic changes in developmental programs lead to new animal forms in evolution, using insects as model system. His field of research is called evolutionary developmental biology. Currently, he is working on the success and diversity of the…

Electrocatalysis will play an increasingly important role in future in the transition to more sustainable energy. Thanks to chemist Isis Ledezma Yanez, we now know more about the hydrogen evolution process. PhD defence on the 9th of June.

Nederland zal de EU-deadline voor de implementatie van gelijke-beloning-wetgeving niet halen en vreest geen gevolgen, maar hoogleraar arbeidsrecht, Gerrard Boot, waarschuwt in Trouw, dat overschrijding de rechtspositie van werknemers ondermijnt en kan leiden tot juridische procedures.

The small quantum world and our world of perception obey different laws of nature. Leiden physicists search for the border between both worlds. In an article published soon in Physical Review Letters they set an upper limit.

Proving a quantum computer to be quicker than a normal one is one step closer. After a breakthrough in speeding up classical algorithms, researchers Vedran Dunjko and Casper Gyurik showed that only one quantum algorithm could beat its classical counterpart. They discuss their discovery in Quanta Mag…

Terwijl NAVO-landen hun defensiebudgetten fors verhogen, ontstaat ruimte voor start-ups om innovatieve technologie te leveren. De flexibiliteit en snelheid maken hen aantrekkelijk voor defensie, maar de opmars brengt ook risico’s met zich mee, waarschuwt Louisa Handel-Mazzetti, promovenda bij Lucht…

The development of smart cars, video games that adapt to your gaming behaviour, law enforcement assigning your neighbourhood a risk score, insurance rates determined by your behaviour, finding your perfect match via an app: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly and radically transforming our interactions…

Wat is er allemaal te doen rondom de universiteit in Den Haag?

As fruit and vegetables ripen, ethylene gas is released. Ethylene also influences the speed at which they ripen. Chemist Tom van Dijkman studied how small and inexpensive sensors can be made that measure ethylene concentrations during transportation. PhD defence 12 May 2016.

Willem Heiser receives the 2017 Psychometric Society Career Award for Lifetime Achievement. 'Receiving this prize from my colleagues makes me very happy.' Heiser is professor emeritus in Psychology, Methodology and Statistics at the Leiden Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences and professor of…

Professor of Media Law and Information Society Tarlach McGonagle is concerned about the increase in online disinformation and hate speech. He argues that human rights should guide new policies for the online world. McGonagle will give his inaugural lecture on 9 May.

Leiden biotech company In Ovo, a spin-off of Leiden University, has received a European Innovation Council Accelerator Pilot Grant. In Ovo will use this 2.5-million-euro grant in its mission to stop the culling of male chicks.

International law experts have voiced concerns about the recent attack on Iran. Legal philosopher Andreas Kinneging expressed a different perspective in an interview with ‘Trouw’ newspaper: 'In times of crisis, the best in people comes out.'

Lecture

While tens of thousands of visitors dance to deafening music, a team of Leiden psychologists are trying to collect data for their research at Lowlands. How do festivalgoers experience a virtual trip? And what role do factors such as too little sleep and whether they have experience with psychedelics…

Corinna Jentzsch and Wouter Veenendaal, two political scientists affiliated with Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science, have been awarded a NWO ‘Veni’-grant. This grant brings them official recognition as ‘young outstanding researchers’, as well as financial support for conducting independent…

This page features an overview of relevant lectures, publications and conference papers.

The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology conducts extensive research on imprisonment. Sending a person to prison is the most severe form of punishment that can be applied in the criminal justice systems of European countries. In most countries, the number of prisoners has risen in recent decades.…

At the Humanities Hub, researchers can immerse themselves in the world of Digital Humanities, while students get the opportunity to develop their digital and media skills within the field of the humanities. The lab spaces of LUCDH, the Faculty of Humanities, and Journalism and New Media provide modern…

The Division of Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacy (SPP) aims to develop precision medicine approaches to characterise and predict variation in treatment response and enhance translational drug development strategies.

The ‘Stans Prize 2017' (for the best thesis, report or article produced by a CML student) has been awarded to Davide De Mauro. Other CML prizes were awarded to Jeroen Guinee, Reinout Heijungs, Martina Vijver, Willie Peijnenburg en Kevin Groen

Dutch people are far more law-abiding than they might like to think. And they are very different from the Belgians in that regard. The different approaches of the two governments towards the coronavirus crisis, for example, can be explained from the history of both countries since the Middle Ages. Historians…

Masses of hamburgers, steaks, cheese and a lot of eggs: Americans love their animal products. But researcher Oliver Taherzadeh discovered that only a relatively small group of high-volume consumers need to modify their diet to achieve an enormous environmental gain.

The "Van Marum Colloquia" are a collaborative lecture series between the LION and LIC institutes, focusing on fundamental and applied surface science.

After 25 years, December will finally see the launch of the long-awaited James Webb space telescope. Leiden astronomers are watching with great excitement: not only were they involved in the construction of important instruments on board, the telescope will also reveal many new secrets of the universe,…

From studying molecules in the blood of corona patients to developing a new concept for vaccines. The Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) has transformed many ongoing projects into Covid research projects. Hubertus Irth, scientific director of LACDR, talks about the role of his institute…

Over a decade ago the then foreign minister Abdullah Gül awarded me the “Medal of High Distinction” of the Republic of Turkey. I received the award, consisting of a diploma and a gigantic gold medal, during a festive ceremony at the Turkish embassy in The Hague. The reason I was deemed worthy of the…