Americans are electing a new president in November but they also have other choices to make in the polling booth. Alumnus Sanne Rijkhoff works at a Texas university and is trying to help make students more aware of the elections.

A research team of fifteen people – representing domains such as political economy, international relations, law, history and public administration - will work on the interdisciplinary programme Citizenship, Migration and Global Transformation. Leiden University has granted 3.5 million euro's to the…

On 22 January, Annemarie Madani-Abbing will defend her dissertation 'Art therapy and anxiety' regarding her research into the effectiveness of anthroposophic art therapy in treating anxiety in women. We asked her about her research and what it was like to combine a job outside academia with studying…

Third-year Security Studies students tackle real-world security challenges for organisations such as Microsoft, the NCTV and Schiphol. From AI and human smuggling to international cooperation, they present their recommendations to professionals in the field.

On Safer Internet Day (Tuesday 6 February), UNICEF Netherlands organised a symposium on the theme of 'Children's rights in the digital world' in collaboration with Leiden University and Kennisnet. Simone van der Hof and Ton Liefaard contributed to the symposium.

The European Commission awarded the project proposal INSIGHT, a follow-up project on illegal firearms trafficking and gun violence from Professor Social Resilience and Security Marieke Liem and PhD-researcher Katharina Krüsselmann of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA).

Security seems to most people a basic necessity of life, a prerequisite for a good life. But if you think about it a little longer and deeper, as political philosopher Josette Daemen has done, you realise that security sometimes comes at the expense of other important goods, such as freedom and equality.…

On Thursday 10 January the annual Meijers prizes were awarded for the best published article, of each faculty research programme, written by Assistant Professors or other academic staff members. The winners received a certificate and a sum of money to spend on research.

As of 1 January 2020 Daan Weggemans has succeeded Ruth Prins as programme director of the bachelor Security Studies. We asked him several questions about himself and his new position.

Lecture

Lecture, China Seminar

Conference, Interdisciplinary Workshop

Jeff Fynn-Paul, lecturer at Leiden University’s Institute for History, was recently awarded the European History Quarterly’s 2016 Prize for his article “Occupation, Family, and Inheritance in Fourteenth-Century Barcelona: A Socio-Economic Profile of One of Europe’s Earliest Investing Publics.”

Dutch doctors hold social media platform Snapchat responsible for the illegal sale of vapes, and are threatening legal action. Bart Schermer, Professor of Law and Digital Technology, spoke to RTL news: 'Snapchat is not liable for the content of its users'.

Gilles van Wezel of the Institute of Biology Leiden will lead a European consortium to search for new medicines and disease-suppressive microbes while preserving biodiversity. The consortium will explore the largely unknown potential of marine microorganisms.

Professor of Korean Studies Remco Breuker has been awarded a subsidy from the European Research Council to study the dispute between both Koreas and China on the history of Manchuria. Political scientist Daniela Stockmann will be examining the role of social media and how the Chinese authorities handle…

Political scientist Simon Chauchard (Leiden University) has been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This brings him recognition as ‘researcher with a promising track record’ and enables him to set up a research group in the coming five years. Chauchard et al. will analyse…

Eveline Crone, Professor of Neurocognitive Developmental Psychology, has been awarded the NWO Spinoza Prize for her high-profile research on adolescent development. NWO announced the award on 16 June. What will Crone do with the award of 2.5 million euros?

Studenten onderzochten maatschappelijke vraagstukken voor het project Leren met de Stad en presenteerden hun resultaten tijdens een informatiemarkt.

Jorik ter Veer studied Political Science in Leiden. How does he look back on his student days?

Over the last 5-6 years Burkina Faso has become seriously implicated in the rapid and dramatic changes in the geopolitical situation in the Sahel. The country, once reputed for its stability and safety, has come under the spotlight for the number of violent attacks and of internally displaced people.…

Steeds drukker is het in populaire banen rond de aarde voor ruimtevaart. Niet alleen met satellieten, vooral met meer afval, wat onveilig is. Zhuang Tian promoveert op de juridische kant van afgedankte ruimte-apparaten. Wie troep veroorzaakt, moet het weer opruimen.

In breast cancer, metastasis rather than the primary tumour is the cause of death. A lack of oxygen in the tumour cells promotes this metastasis, accompanied by a reprogramming of the cell's metabolism. PhD candidate Qiuyu Liu investigated these alterations to get more knowledge about the actionable…

Joost Beltman (LACDR, Leiden University) has provided novel insights in the way T cells migrate towards virus-infected cells. This was accomplished by a combination of experimental research in the group of Ton Schumacher (Dutch Cancer Institute, NKI) and computer simulations in collaboration with Rob…

Tackling key challenges of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry to aid drug discovery is one of the focus areas of Leiden University. To this end, the Leiden Early Drug Discovery & Development network (LED3) was established by the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC), the Institute of Biology Leiden…

How can we reduce CO2 emissions from industry? Leiden psychologists Emma Mors and Christine Boomsma are examining the public perception and acceptance around the capture and storage of carbon dioxide. This is part of the ALIGN CCUS European research programme.

Are you interested in expanding your knowledge on the Dutch crisis management system? Leiden University is organising a unique lecture series on the subject in collaboration with the Netherlands Institute for Public Safety (NIPV). The lectures will take place on 22 April, 13 May, and 3 June.

The University of Oslo and Leiden University have joined forces to organise a Tutorial on Robots and Society: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Perspectives on Integrating Robots in the Home and Healthcare Systems and Services at the IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communica…

As of 1 November, Laura Heitman has been appointed full Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR). Heitman has been working on the understanding and improvement of drug-receptor interactions in early drug discovery. ‘My ultimate aim is to make medicines…

On the eve of Leiden University’s 450th anniversary, the 1574th and 1575th Honours College students received their honours certificates. In a crowded Scheltema, people celebrated ‘that so many students have had the opportunity to broaden their horizons.’

Since the credit crisis erupted, drastic cutbacks have been made in all kinds of public sector organisations, creating some very difficult choices for the top civil servants who had to implement them in their own organisation. This is the conclusion of Public Administration scholar Eduard Schmidt, whose…

Leiden researchers have carried out successful tests using a new method of packaging a cancer vaccine in nano-particles. The new vaccine has induced a strong immune reaction in mice. The researchers believe that this method can make an important contribution to the treatment of cancer. Their findings…

Alumnus José Figuerero tells us about how a Criminologist can work at Booking.com and why he would have liked to have had more law-related courses in his master's programme.

The newly launched Public Leadership in Collaboration partnership has been designed to enhance leadership within and across public sector organisations through research. This kind of leadership has a direct impact on society. Professor Ben Kuipers from the Leiden Leadership Centre (LLC) shares three…

Herewith we are happy to announce the winners of the Meijers PhD-positions 2019.

Just a few years ago, jihadist terrorism was seen as Europe’s most pressing threat. Today, we are facing hybrid warfare and extremist groups that are undermining our safety from within. Bart Schuurman, Professor of Terrorism and Political Violence, calls for a different kind of research.

On Tuesday a few dozen students and staff from Leiden University protested on the square in front of the Lipsius building against the classroom scanners that have been installed in buildings and lecture halls. They are demanding that the scanners be removed.

Organs and tissues grown in the lab may in the future be able to cure people with organ failures. Micha Drukker, professor of Stem Cells, Developmental Biology and Technology for Innovative Drug Research, is convinced that the use of stem cells will make this possible. He will deliver his inaugural…

Humanity is a widely used concept in organisations, yet it is rarely given concrete meaning. As a result, it often remains vague and non-committal, with dehumanisation as an unintended consequence. According to Marjon Bohré, practising humanity requires making deliberate choices, in language, decision-making…

Over a thousand women ended up in a State workhouse between 1886 and 1934. This was a place for vagrants, beggars and drunkards: people who were said to be too lazy to work. Who were these women who were sent there? PhD candidate Marian Weevers found out.

Leiden University is under fire: it is allegedly doing too little to tackle antisemitism. Rector Hester Bijl responds to this accusation and to a video from 2014 on social media in which extreme remarks are made. ‘We can be short about such comments: they are unacceptable. The university is and always…

With 'The unruly reality of a new government: Navigating between networks and serving in a 'vulnerable' neighbourhood', Mony Klaus has won the FSW Thesis Prize 2023. Written as part of the Master's programme in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, the thesis examines how a new government…

Herman Spaink knows of many substances that may help combat tuberculosis. Lab space to study them safely is very limited in Leiden. A brand-new lab at Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia will soon provide a solution. About time, says Spaink, ‘The disease is on the rise and is becoming less sensitive…

The EU has been negotiating a trade deal with Mercosur, a South American trade bloc, for over 25 years. In recent weeks, significant progress has been made. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Mercosur leaders in Asunción, Paraguay, on 17 January to sign the deal.

Preventing viral infections from being transmitted through blood transfusion and organ transplantation lies at the heart of the work of medical microbiologist and virologist Mariet Feltkamp and her team.

‘Our health is the area that stands to gain most from artificial intelligence.’ The three universities in Zuid-Holland are helping make these gains. Three researchers talk about their collaborative research into AI for health, drug discovery and healthcare in the AI knowledge cluster in Zuid-Holland.…

Lecture, Ancient History Research Seminar

PhD defence

Lecture

Are all murderers calculating psychopaths with an obscene predilection for bloody chainsaws? Yes, if Hollywood is to be believed, but in the real world they are generally everyday people with problematic backgrounds. Professor of Violence and Interventions Marieke Liem therefore calls for the demythologisation…