On 24 and 25 September 2021, the 20th Austrian European Law Day took place at the University of Liechtenstein on the topic of

On Tuesday 30 May 2017 Jorrit Rijpma, Associate Professor at the Europa Institute, together with his colleagues Prof. Thomas Spijkerboer (Free University) and Dr. Maarten den Heijer (University of Amserdam), delivered a key note address at the Nordic Asylum Law Seminar in Reykjavik, Iceland.

For a long time it was thought that there were few or no female spies in history. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In her book Invisible Agents, Nadine Akkerman reconstructs the stories of the many British women spies in the 17th century.

Professor Ariadne Schmidt and Associate Professor Arie van Steensel (University of Groningen) have produced A Companion to Medieval and Early Modern Leiden, the first English-language history of Leiden. Mayor Peter Heijkoop received the first copy.

Since the publication of the article in the interdisciplinary journal Nature, over 200 news outlets have showcased the pioneering research.

Moritz Jesse delivered a lecture titled 'Legal Risks from, to, and within EU Migration Law - An Inventory’ as part of the lunch seminar series organized by the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance at the University of Amsterdam in May.

A consortium including economists, psychologists and public administration scholars from Leiden University will study public acceptance of the hydrogen transition in the Netherlands. They will look at the labour market impact, public perceptions of hydrogen and businesses’ willingness to invest.

What did psychology student Jessie learn while working at a psychiatric hospital in The Gambia? And why is Noman from Yemen now studying political science in Leiden? Thanks to donations from alumni, students have the opportunity to spend time abroad funded by a LUF grant. Jessie and Noman talk about…

The material and intellectual presence of Egypt is at the heart of Western culture, religion, and art from Antiquity to the present. In his book ‘Beyond Egyptomania. Objects, style and agency’, archaeologist Miguel John Versluys not only presents the Nachleben of Egypt as a major constituent of (European)…

This year, an NWO PhD in the Humanities grant went to Mink van IJzendoorn, enabling him to investigate the disappearance of amphorae. ‘We take means of packaging and shipment for granted, but they are deeply ingrained in our daily lives; they are crucial.’

‘When I look back on the honours programme, all I can do is smile. It has transformed me into a student who thinks in terms of opportunities and solutions,’ said Roos ter Elst, student of Education and Child Studies, at the ceremony for the award of Honours certificates to bachelor’s students, on 6…

Due to the unrest in the Middle East, many ancient Syrian manuscripts are no longer available or have even been destroyed. Professor of Old Testament Bas ter Haar Romeny received 77 microfilms of Syrian manuscripts, enabling him and his PhD students to research these ‘lost’ manuscripts.

On 16 April 2021 the webinar ‘Children and young adults in contact with the law: Systemic vulnerabilities and institutional responses’ took place. In total 17 speakers and discussants engaged with the topic of vulnerability.

The adventure of iGEM Leiden has come to an end. The result: prizes for Best Therapeutic Project and Best Model, a gold medal, a successful crowdfunding campaign and of course their open-source research findings, which are available for the scientific community.

The title of European City of Science was officially handed over to a delegation from Leiden in the Italian city of Trieste on 6 September. Leiden will be the science capital of Europe for the year 2022. The EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), the largest interdisciplinary science conference in Europe, will…

On Saturday 9 February 2019 we celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2019 in Leiden! View the photos of this festive day, with contributions from Robbert Dijkgraaf and Ewine van Dishoeck, and numerous fascinating workshops and exciting experiments.

At the LION/Sterrewacht new year’s reception, Scientific Director of Casimir Tjerk Oosterkamp handed out the 2017 Hendrik Casimir Prize to physics students Nashwan Sabti (Leiden) and Nikolas Kavadias (Delft). The Casimir Research School yearly awards the prize to the best MSc students in (Applied) Physics…

For many years, scientists have observed a correlation between Alzheimer’s disease and a surplus of iron in the brain. However, a causal link between the two has not been proven yet. We lack knowledge concerning the specific form of iron that is involved in the development of neurodegenerative diseases.…

Linguist Willem Adelaar was appointed to Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion on October 1st. On that very same day he celebrated his 43-year connection to Leiden University. Adelaar has an impressive track record in the field of indigenous, and often endangered, Amerindian languages.

Salt crystals, a nano-sized golf stick and molten glass. The LION Image Award competition of 2023 yielded a lot of beautiful images once again. But in the end, only one can be the winner.

Professor Geert de Snoo, Dean of the Faculty of Science at Leiden University, has been appointed Director of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) with effect from 1 November 2019. He will stand down from his role as Dean of the Faculty of Science with effect from 1 September. De Snoo will…

On 28 February, Professor E.W. Meijer, member of Leiden University’s Board of Governors, was appointed Commander in the Order of the Dutch Lion.

At the LION/Sterrewacht new year’s reception, Prof. Tjerk Oosterkamp handed out the 2016 Hendrik Casimir Prize to physics students Andrea Peña (Leiden) and Jorrit Hortensius (Delft). The Casimir Research School yearly awards the Hendrik Casimir Prize to the best MSc students in (Applied) Physics of…

Assistant Professor Vedran Dunjko and his team receive a €100,000 gift from Google to support them in their quantum research. The research focuses on whether quantum computers can provide new ways of understanding the mysteries of high-energy physics. Google is committed to supporting ambitious research…

LUMC professor and gynaecologist Dick Oepkes was made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion on 15 April. Mayor Henri Lenferink presented him with the medal at the end of on online symposium to mark Oepkes’ retirement.

‘Huis van het Boek/Museum Meermanno in The Hague exhibits book bindings by leading Dutch Art-Nouveau artists from the period 1890-1910. The exhibition will be open from March 22 to June 23 2019. The title of the exhibition is De Bijzondere Band: Art Nouveau-boeken van Dijsselhof, Lion Cachet en Nieu…

Dutch artist and visionary David Humbert de Superville (1770-1849) was the founder and first director of the Print Room at Leiden University. An exhibition and symposium are now being organised in his honour. What makes him so remarkable?

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. This makes fundamental research on the precise cause of the illness of vital importance. One of the possible suspects is a certain protein filled with iron. Leiden physicist Lucia Bossoni (LION/LUMC) has now developed a new way of investigating…

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.

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…

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

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…

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…

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.

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?

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…

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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’.

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.

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

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