Study information, Q&A

New housing in old labs and striking architecture for University buildings and high-tech companies, not to mention waterside parks. An exhibition in Oude UB shows the radical changes that are in store for the Leiden Bio Science Park over the coming years.

The Leiden University College team behind the Learning Mindset project has been nominated for the Dutch Higher Education Award, an award for innovative teaching in higher education. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science announced this on 15 March.

Many important discoveries have been made in Leiden, and the Leiden Discoveries route guides you through the city to find them. For example, it will take you to the lab of Nobel laureate Willem Einthoven, who was a professor of physiology. His most important invention, the electrocardiograph, is still…

Since the beginning of September, urban criminologist Marianne Franken has been the linchpin of a special partnership between Leiden University, the municipality of Leiden and the police. As a PhD candidate she will spend four years conducting research into how safe the people of Leiden feel.

To mark its 75th anniversary, the Netherlands War Graves Foundation is publishing a portrait of a war victim every week this year. On 24 January the drawing of Irawan Soejono, a Leiden student and Indonesian resistance member, was unveiled at the Groenesteeg cemetery in Leiden, the place where Soejono…

The Security Studies bachelor's programme has received a bronze medal in EW Best Studies 2023. Every year, EW Best Studies selects the top programmes in Dutch higher education.

Rietje Knaap’s (83) PhD was a real feat of endurance, but she persisted. ‘You’re married so you don’t need a pension, do you?’ What are the experiences of Knaap and women who followed in her footsteps? In the run-up to International Women’s Day on 8 March, three generations of female doctors look back…

Horizon2020 is the European Union’s research and innovation programme. Now that this programme has almost ended, it is time to think about its successor. Excellence must be at the forefront of this new programme, says the League for European Research Universities (LERU).

LUC The Hague is recognised as a national Top Programme, reflecting a vibrant learning community where curiosity, academic excellence and global engagement come together.

With his clever measuring methods Ignas Snellen – together with his team – was the first to detect carbon monoxide in the atmosphere of exoplanets. For his pioneering work the Leiden astrophysicist has been awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest academic honour in the Netherlands. The prize of 2.5 million…

Alumni event

Finally we know for sure that there is a black hole at the centre of our own galaxy. Today, astronomers unveiled the first ever photo of Sagittarius A*, a super-massive object at the centre of the Milky Way. This picture could only be taken thanks to the cooperation of telescopes worldwide.

Her book ‘Veel valse hoop’ (Much False Hope) about the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands was immediately hailed as a seminal work. German historian Katja Happe gave the Cleveringa Lecture on 26 November. She is fascinated by what makes people take a stand.

Writing a book on the recent history of Leiden University in corona times. For educational and policy historian Pieter Slaman (34), this has meant working in the attic of his parents’ house while they looked after his daughter, along with numerous online conversations and very few, if any, visits to…

Leiden University College (LUC) is proud to announce that it have been awarded the Special Feature Sustainable Higher Education by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). This recognition affirms the deep commitment to embedding sustainability across the curriculum, research,…

Not only dark matter, but also ordinary matter and dark energy are tracked in the largest ever cosmological computer simulation ever. In the FLAMINGO simulations, you can see virtual galaxies and clusters of galaxies emerging over the course of billions of years. This is no easy task: with more than…

Dutch influencers like Romy Boomsma and Nina Pierson have a huge following on Instagram and are increasingly sharing book tips there. Researcher Aafje de Roest wants to find out more about the reading culture they are promoting and its effect on the reading habits of their mostly young female follow…

Planets existing in other solar systems contain invaluable information about the origin of planets and life. PhD candidate Yapeng Zhang has studied their atmospheres by looking at their smallest parts: isotopes. With her research she hopes to discover what makes our own solar system unique.

After many years of preparations, CERN has approved a groundbreaking new experiment: the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP). Physicist Alexey Boyarsky was involved from the start. ‘We know there is physics that’s missing and we aim to find it.’

A CT scanner to treat eye cancer, energy-efficient software for the future and a test to identify male chick eggs. Three projects by researchers from Leiden University are to receive funding from research funder NWO’s Open Technology programme, to which the business sector also contributes.

Do you often find yourself exhausted in the lecture hall or at your workplace? Not great for your mental well-being, as Laura Pape knows. She is investigating how an online self-help program can assist in addressing sleep issues and preventing mental health problems. Join her on this elevator pitch…

In a sailboat, a canoe or stowed away on a ship: during the Second World War, many Leiden students tried to cross the sea to join the Allies in Britain. ‘Soldier of Orange’ is the most famous, but who were the other ‘England voyagers’ or Engelandvaarders as they are known?

On 4 May, Leiden University remembered the victims of the Second World War from our university community. Alumni, students and present and former staff of the University came together for this Hour of Remembrance.

Juan Masullo (Leiden University Institute of Political Science) receives a grant from the Elise Mathilde Fund/Leiden University Fund to conduct his research project ‘Forging an Anti-Mafia Culture: Observational and Experimental Evidence from Italy’. Masullo aims to find out what ordinary Italians think…

Over the centuries painters and photographers have depicted students at study in Leiden. An exhibition at the Hortus botanicus reveals the similarities and differences in 450 years of student life.

Astronomer Alexander Mushtukov, currently working at the University of Amsterdam, received a Veni grant of 250,000 euro’s which he will execute in Leiden. Supervised by Simon Portegies Zwart, Mushtukov will use advanced simulations to understand the unknown physics in extremely bright neutron stars.

An international team of astronomers from Leiden Observatory and others, has for the first time mapped a piece of the dark, cosmic web. The research strengthens the hypothesis that the young universe consisted of huge numbers of small groups of newly formed stars. The astronomers publish their findings…

LUC students research the Geul river’s restoration, combining sediment studies, biodiversity assessments, and policy insights for global environmental challenges

Four researchers from Leiden University will receive funding from arthritis foundation ReumaNederland over the next five years. This should facilitate long-term research into arthritis.

Immunologist Leender Trouw specialises in the complement system, which is part of the immune system. In some diseases drugs help activate or inhibit this system. This is best done ‘in the right place at the right time’ − the title of his inaugural lecture.

The Faculty of Science grants two C.J. Kok awards each year: the C.J. Kok Public Award, also known as the award for the ‘Discoverer of the Year’, and the C.J. Kok Jury Award, the award for the best PhD thesis from the past year.

Conference

Paul Christiaan Flu, originally from Surinam, was a brilliant tropical doctor, who in 1938 rose to the position of Rector Magnificus of Leiden University. The war years brought his lightning career to an abrupt end: his son was murdered and he himself was imprisoned in a concentration camp. A sad family…

Permission was recently given for all members of the examining committee and co-supervisors at PhD ceremonies to wear academic dress, even if they’re not full professors. How historic is this change?

Conference

Research on quantum computers and Islamic charities: two Leiden researchers have received a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council.

Various Leiden researchers have been awarded a European grant to explore the commercial or societal potential of previous research.

Despite an eventful afternoon – with Students for Palestine occupying the Academy Building – political scientist Hélène Landemore gave her Cleveringa Lecture as planned on 26 November. She reflected on the protest and the importance of open debate, within the university and within a democracy.

SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research is moving. In 2021, the Utrecht branch will settle in South Holland. Assistant professor at TU Delft, Akira Endo leads a project that builds a state-of-the-art instrument for astronomical research. ‘SRON is the key to go from proof-of-concept to a science-grade…

From memorials to the armed forces to memory stones for individual victims. It was only later that the Holocaust took a central role in Western remembrance culture, Cleveringa Professor Frank van Vree notes. ‘Nationalists and human rights activists both invoke the experience of the Holocaust.’

Galaxies in the early universe contain more dust and hidden star formation than previously thought. That's what Ivana van Leeuwen concludes in her PhD research, where she combines data from various telescopes to create a more complete picture.

Joris Larik Assistant Professor of Comparative, EU and International Law at Leiden University College The Hague was appointed as Secretary for a new Expert Commission on Interstate Use of Force and Humanitarian Intervention by the Dutch Foreign Minister.

Leiden University College The Hague received the 'Top rated Programme' seal from the Keuzegids Universiteiten 2022 (Dutch University Guide). It is the ninth consecutive time the Liberal Arts & Sciences programme focusing on Global Challenges is awarded the honorary seal.

A group of confidants including a former student of Meijers managed to avert his deportation to a death camp. In her lecture on 27 November, Cleveringa Professor Marjan Schwegman revealed the history of the persecution of the Jewish Professor Eduard Meijers.

Through each individual decision, however small, people make history. This is what historian Katja Happe said in the Cleveringa Lecture on 26 November. She illustrated this with individual reactions to the persecution of Jews during the Second World War.

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne for their work on the measurement of gravitational waves. Thorne was Lorentz Professor in 2009 in Leiden. Physicist Jan Willem van Holten explains why this is such an important discovery. ‘A new branch of astrophysics…

Astronomer and science communicator Pedro Russo is awarded the K.J Cath Prize and € 2,500 for his outreach efforts that bring science to the general public. ‘There are so many bright scientists, and so few people communicating about science.’