We received the sad news that Janet van der Meulen passed away on November 29. She was an expert on French and Dutch literature in the medieval Low Countries. An in memoriam (in Dutch) has been published on the website of Neerlandistiek.

Professor Jojanneke van der Toorn has held the chair in LGBT workplace inclusion for five years. To celebrate, organised an international online conference on workplace inclusion, in cooperation with Workplace Pride that was hosted by the university on 20 and 21 May.

The Young Academy has gained a new Leiden humanities scholar as a member. University lecturer Greek language and literature Tazuko van Berkel will be appointed as a member as of March.

Political scientists Tom van der Meer, Lisa Janssen (University of Amsterdam) and Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) analyse polls presented by the main polling agencies in the Netherlands, as well as micro-level panel data. They reach three main conclusions. First, vote intention polls in the Netherlands…

Lecture

PhD defence

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.

In a remote cave on the Indonesian island of Borneo, a series of rock art paintings have been discovered. The oldest painting might be the oldest-known example of figurative cave art. Wil Roebroeks, not himself involved in this project, reflects on the findings in several media.

Earning some quick money by drug trafficking, committing an act of violence or almost collapsing under performance pressure. In the four-part NeurolabNL Young vodcast young people talk openly with neuroscientists about high-risk behaviour and performance pressure. How did they find their way back?

On Saturday October 16, the special exhibition ‘Shared Sky: Canvases of the Universe’ opens in the Old Observatory in Leiden. The exhibit takes a cultural look at the starry sky by Aboriginal Australian and South African artists, and features colorful artwork that explores how these Indigenous cultures…

What does it mean to be a migrant in a big city? According to assistant professor Kamila Krakowska Rodrigues, artists have the answer to that question. In a new ERC-funded project, she will explore the representation of contemporary urban diversity in films, performance art, written literature and spoken…

At the Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), scholars have been studying the Indian subcontinent with attention and expertise for more than 100 years. This part of South Asia is an economic giant with a population of over two billion. Nira Wickramasinghe, Professor of Modern South Asian Studies,…

Through the clever use of two types of telescopes, a team of researchers has produced stunning images of clusters of galaxies. This not only produces beautiful images, but also provides more information about the enormous amounts of energy released around supermassive black holes in clusters. The astronomers,…

Rogier Kegge, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Law of Leiden University, was interviewed by Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant in response to the recent recommendations by Johan Remkes on how to approach the nitrogen crisis.

At the conference ‘Law-Making in Multilevel Settings: Federalism, Europe and Beyond’, Ruben de Graaff and Dorine Verheij provided a lecture on the topic of ‘EU Regulations and the Spirit of Codification’.

The Fritz Zwicky Prize 2022 for Astrophysics & Cosmology has been awarded to Prof. Ewine F. van Dishoeck for her pioneering, decades-long work in astrochemistry and molecular spectroscopy, as well as for her leadership within the astronomical community. The award was announced today by the European…

Yra van Dijk obtained a NWO 'Internationalisation in the Humanities' grant. Together with Ernst van Alphen she will collaborate with 8 European and Israelian partners in researching 'Digital Memory of the Holocaust'.

Criminals? They are always men. At least, that’s what we tend to think. Historian Manon van der Heijden wants to show, however, that between 1600 and 1900 in Europe, women were responsible for a substantial share of the criminal activity. She has been granted a VICI award for her research.

Sylvia van Beugen has won the Herman Musaph Literature award 2016 for the best publication about psychodermatology. Her publication describes the importance of body awareness in chronic skin conditions, such as psoriasis.

Gabrielle van den Berg became the Academic Director of LIAS on 1 September 2025: “I hope I’ll be able to make a real difference.”

Before founding their American colony, the Pilgrim Fathers first lived in Leiden in the early 17th century. This group has no fewer than nine American presidents among its descendants. The University played an important role in the Pilgrims’ life in Leiden.

Twee mannen zijn veroordeeld tot zes maanden cel voor het projecteren van racistische leuzen op de Erasmusbrug tijdens de jaarwisseling van 2022 naar 2023. Universitair hoofddocent Marloes van Noorloos sprak met de Volkskrant over de strafbaarheid van dergelijke leuzen.

Annelot van Esbroeck-Weevers, PhD student at the Molecular Physiology research group at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, headed by Dr. Mario van der Stelt, has been awarded the Best Oral Communication Prize at the 8th European Workshop on Cannabinoid Research, held from 31 August to 2 September 2017…

The Meijers prizes are awarded each year for the best published article from each faculty research programme. Veldt received the prize for her contribution to the research programme ‘Coherent Privaatrecht’ with her article ‘De betekenis van Europese productnormen voor privaatrechtelijke normstelling’…

On 5 December, the second edition of the Prague Cleveringa Lecture took place. Hosted by Charles University Rector Milena Králíčková in the Karolinum's Hall of Patriots, in one of the oldest academic buildings of Central Europe, the lecture was organised by the Embassy of the Netherlands in cooperation…

Ed van den Berg, MBA, will succeed Dirkje Schinkelshoek from 1 September as interim member of the Faculty Board of the Science Faculty, responsible for operational management.

From 25 to 31 October, Professor Simone van der Hof was on a working visit to China with a delegation from Leiden Law School, including our dean Professor Joanne van der Leun.

The Executive Board is delighted to announce that Joanne van der Leun took up the position of the university’s Academic Lead International Affairs as of 1 January 2025.

On 19 May we received the sad news of the sudden and unexpected death of Willem van Beelen, at the age of 64. He had been the University's beadle for 27 years before retiring on 29 February this year.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese workers have moved from the countryside to the city. This social transformation has birthed a tradition of migrant worker poetry, professor Maghiel van Crevel states in Jacobin.

The paper Genetic Algoriths for Evolving Computer Chess Programs by Omid E. David, Jaap van den Herik, Moshe Koppel, Nathan S. Netanyahu has won the Humies Award 2014 (human-competitive results produced by genetic and evolutionary computation).

Hoogleraar Internationaal recht bij het Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Larissa van den Herik is in augustus 2024 beëdigd als rechter-plaatsvervanger bij de Rechtbank Den Haag.

Prof. dr. Aad van der Vaart has been appointed as Scientific Director of the Mathematical Institute of Leiden University on Tuesday 15 September 2015. He succeeds prof. dr. Peter Stevenhagen who has been a dedicated Scientific Director of the Mathematical Institute as from 2007.

Daniël van Loggerenberg, alumnus of the master’s programme Financieel Recht en Fiscaal Recht at Leiden Law School, has won the annual thesis award of the Vereniging voor Financieel Recht.

Leiden PhD candidate and vet Luc Janssens discovered that a dog found at the start of the last century in a grave dating back 14,000 years had been sick for a long time and had been cared for. He and Thijs van Kolfschoten were interviewed by National Geographic about this discovery.

On December 3rd, AI4LAM (Artificial Intelligence for Libraries, Archives, and Museums) was launched in London. Leiden University Libraries (UBL)is a founding member, along with more than 40 leading international heritage and knowledge institutions. Together with our partners in AI4LAM, UBL aims to promote…

What do scholars, the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service, the police, the National Rapporteur Human Trafficking, Victim Support Netherlands, and the Violent Offences Compensation Fund have in common? They all work with victims, each from their own expertise. High time to combine that knowledge,…

Environmental scientist Alexander van Oudenhoven has been chosen as Discoverer of the year of the Faculty of Science. Vice Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl announced this during the faculty’s New Year’s Reception on 10 January. Biologist Changsheng Wu won the prize for best dissertation of 2016. Computer…

From painful joints to intense fatigue: a third of rheumatism patients suffer serious effects from this chronic condition and rely long-term on medication. Leiden psychologists are to receive a subsidy from the Netherlands Arthritis Foundation to investigate whether placebo techniques can help patients…

The 260 year old prize of the Legatum Stolpianum has been awarded in 2014 to two well written historical studies of high quality and with current significance. Leiden classicist Tazuko van Berkel is one of the two prizewinners.

Dr. Rosalien van der Poel succeeds Lonneke Regter as Institute Manager of the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA). Together with prof.dr. Henk Borgdorff, scientific director ACPA, she constitutes the board of ACPA since 15 November 2017.

Following developments in the US, the EU has now also opened the door for large-scale State aid to its own sustainable industries. A means to curb China’s power. However, this plan is driving the EU and the US apart.

So called 'jihad municipalities' are being more closely monitored as a result of the arrests on 25 November 2019 of two terrorist suspects from Zoetermeer. Jelle van Buuren, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, looks back at the latest developments over the last few y…

As of 1 September Miranda van Eck will be the new Scientific Director of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research. She succeeds Hubertus Irth, who led the institute since 2016. Van Eck has been appointed for a period of four years.

A long-term mathematical collaboration between South Africa and Leiden will continue with the appointment of Marcel de Jeu as professor by special appointment at the University of Pretoria. He will be working in the field of Positivity.

Under extreme pressure and in agreement with the Faculty Board, the programme chairs, represented by a core group, have worked over recent weeks on additional recommendations based on the Perspective 2028 plan. On 1 December they presented their Alternative Perspective 2028 to the Faculty Board. The…

Dear friends of the NVIC,

Bachelor's students Kirsten S. Barink, Milène van der Geest, Claire van den Helder and Pim L. Ruhe are granted the Speckmann award for their Fieldwork NL report 'If it would have been a colour it would be pitch-black', a report on people suffering from the phenomenon of 'Electrohypersensitivity'.

For her research into complex family problems, an assistant professor in Forensic Family and Youth Care Studies Sabine van der Asdonk has won the Gratama Science Prize 2021, a prize for talented young researchers from the universities of Leiden and Groningen. The jury praised Van der Asdonk’s excellent…

On Thursday 7 May, Jolanda van der Vliet obtained her PhD based on her dissertation 'The International Protection of Environmental Refugees. A human rights-based, security and State responsibility approach.' The defence was held online. Jolanda worked on her dissertation under the supervision of the…