Hundreds of new students at Leiden University attended the opening of the 2015-2016 academic year. They came from all corners of the world for the start of their new study programme. Portraits of some of the newcomers.

A fragment of a human skull from the collection of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (RMO) and a decorated bison bone, both from the North Sea bed, are rare finds from the end of the last Ice Age. The finds are 13,000 years old and, as such, form the earliest known modern human from the Netherlands…

More focus on diversity in Antiquity, workshops for students with disabilities, and a card game to share stories about diversity: these and other projects will receive funding from the JEDI Fund in 2023.

The ERC has awarded a Starting Grant to five promising researchers from Leiden. Two are from the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, one is from the Faculty of Humanities/Governance and Global Affairs, one from the LUMC and one from the Faculty of Science.

Just published:

While the interim ruling passed down by the International Court of Justice did not order a ceasefire, it did state that Israel must take all measures to prevent further victims and genocidal acts in Gaza. South Africa brought the case as it alleges that the war in Gaza constitutes a violation of the…

Researchers from all parts of the world will be in Leiden from 2 to 4 May for a major malaria conference. The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) is organising a two-day workshop on how vaccines can be tested safely in humans.

Innovation in nest building: bird nests made from anti-bird spikes. Researchers from Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the Natural History Museum Rotterdam describe this behaviour in a publication.

Bachelor's students from all different disciplines came to the Master's Open Day to explore the options for their next programme. Some of them visited several different programmes and still have all their options open, while others wanted answers to very specific questions before making their final…

Sebastian Diessner, assistant professor at the Institute of Public Administration, has won a grant from the Leverhulme Fund together with three researchers from the United Kingdom. The grant, worth 350,000 euros, is for the research project: 'The Political Economy of Knowledge-Based Growth.'

ISGA researchers have received €1 million for research aimed at enhancing the Netherlands' digital resilience. The funding comes primarily from NWO, but private parties are also contributing financially. In total, €10.5 million is being allocated to launch six projects.

Meticulous analysis of hundreds of photographic plates from the star J1407 between 1890 and 2007 show no stellar eclipses. Robin Mentel, a master student at Leiden University, could not detect eclipses of the star J1407 by a planet hypothesized to have giant rings, called J1407b. However, an eclipse…

A day at the beach, games, a visit to an embassy and a pub crawl. The activities at HOPweek help new students get to know not just The Hague but each other too.

How were ideas about politics and society distributed in ancient China? Hilde De Weerdt, Professor of Chinese History, investigates this using new digital methods. We speak with her about networks, big data and digital humanities.

The art installation by Peter van der Putten and Jeroen van der Most was selected from nearly 500 submissions for an exhibition on climate change.

The asylum seekers’ centres in Hengelo, Almelo and Schalkhaar caused little or no nuisance in recent years. There have been hardly any incidents, according to information received by Dutch regional TV channel RTV Oost. However, Maarten Offinga, Mayor of Hardenberg, sounded the alarm with the state secretary…

The summer has flown by and the Nexus 1492 team in Valverde, Dominican Republic, has once again had an exciting and successful season!

A month’s break from your studies, ten days of intensive rehearsals and then a concert tour: the Netherlands Student Orchestra is based on a simple formula. Leiden student Daphne Biron tells us about the orchestra and the concert in Leiden on 20 February.

In August 2019, LUCIS will again organise a summer school on Philology and Manuscripts from the Muslim world. Are you interested in handwritten materials? Then keep reading!

From recurrent oil disasters to the outbreak of contagious diseases or major fires. Public organisations often learn too little from such crises, according to public administration specialist Wout Broekema. Staff frequently fail to communicate information adequately, which means that lessons are often…

Astronomers have used data from the European Gaia Space Telescope to discover 55 high-speed stars launched from the young star cluster R136 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This increases tenfold the number of known “runaway stars” in this region. The team of astronomers,…

Dear friends of the NVIC,

It may not seem necessary to install special tap water stations in University buildings, but it is very useful: every tap here also means a tap in a developing country. With the the 35 tap water stations that Leiden University installs, the slum area of Madoya in Nairobi will soon have clean drinking…

During the summer, staff of the Faculty of Archaeology travel to all parts of the world, initiating or joining fieldwork projects. Read some of their stories here!

Connecting as the magic word. Seeking new collaborations, presenting ourselves to the outside world with an open attitude and showing what we do. During the opening of the academic year on Tuesday afternoon, Dean Jasper Knoester emphasised that change and connection are necessary for the university…

For the annual Week of Classics, Dr Marike van Aerde and her team made a documentary about their research project Routes of Exchange, Roots of Connectivity. In the film the team touches upon the interactions of Greeks and Romans with the wider ancient world, ranging from the African kingdom of Aksum…

Last Thursday, the April edition of the ILS Lunch Seminars took place. This well visited seminar took on a slightly different format, since we had the honour of receiving Leandro Mancano from the University of Edinburgh.

The question of how military interventions can best transition to a long term counter-terrorism policy forms the core research question of three interlinked reports. This research project has been completed with support of NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Programme. Leiden University researchers…

Greenhouse gas emissions related to pharmaceutical consumption increased by 77 percent over the past 24 years, according to a Leiden University study published in The Lancet Planetary Health. Moreover, efficiency gains have stalled since 2008. ‘Our best option is reducing consumption and minimising…

For nearly twenty years the Lorentz Center has been a unique venue where researchers from all over the world work in intense collaboration. In an inspiring academic climate, researchers are free to organise specialised workshops within and across disciplines, be it humanities, social sciences or sci…

Studying ancient materials and the way they were made can give us groundbreaking insights into the past. Not only that, the interplay between people and materials is highly relevant for society today, says Ann Brysbaert, Professor of Ancient Technologies, Crafts and Materials, at the Faculty of Archaeology.…

‘All the groceries, but not a fig for young workers’, read a banner during the occupation of Ahold’s headquarters in 1981. ‘For a long time, young workers were not taken seriously, but they managed to put themselves on the map’, says historian Rosa Kösters.

The role of the interfacial environment during electrochemical reactions has been increasingly valued, especially for those reactions involving protons or hydroxyl ions.

In this PhD study, I aim to deepen our understanding of the influence of major mycorrhizal types, namely arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) and ectomycorrhizae (EM), on the global soil carbon cycle and their potential distribution changes under future environmental shifts.

Kyra van der Moezel defended her thesis on 7 September 2016.

Nuran Buket Cengiz defended her thesis on 13 June 2017