This fall, LUCIS will have the pleasure of welcoming Professor Wadad Kadi, of the University of Chicago, to Leiden. She is the first Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain Cultural Foundation Visiting Professor in Arabic Culture at Leiden University.

Neanderthals at Pech-de-l'Azé I in South Western France had a striking use for manganese dioxide 50,000 years ago.

Before researchers can develop targeted drugs, they need to know exactly how a disease works. Biochemist Bert Beerkens created molecules that allow them to find out. He used caffeine as the basis for new molecules that enable research into certain receptor proteins on cells.

The UN International Law Commission was established soon after the Second World War with the mandate to promote the progressive development of international law and its codification. It is a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly.

The KM3NeT neutrino detector celebrates the installation of the first string of detectors in the Mediterranean Sea off the French coast. It will measure neutrinos’ spooky spontaneous change in flavor. Leiden physicist Dorothea Samtleben is closely involved in the project.

Despite the rain and awful weather, the painting job has been finished within a week. The Van der Waals-state equation is the eighth Leiden wall formula.

The FOM Executive Board has appointed Professor Wim van Saarloos (1955) Director of FOM Foundation, effective 1 November 2009.

On Saturday 28 September we will be running again, for scholars at risk during the Leiden Science Run. Already 56 teams have registered, from Leiden and The Hague students to scientists and companies. There are still spots left for more teams!

Four of Leiden's young, talented ethnic minority graduates are to receive an award as part of the Mosiac programme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The award will allow these budding researchers to fund a four-year research period leading to a doctorate.

Professor Jan Melissen (ISGA) is the recipient of the 2022 ISA Distinguished Scholar Award in Diplomacy Studies. It is the first time this prize has been awarded to someone in Europe. Melissen: ‘I am very honoured and humbled to be the first person to receive this award outside North America.’

Maarten Feteris, the former president of the Court of Appeal and an alumnus of Leiden University, composed the piece ‘Intermezzo’ to mark the transfer of the rectorate during the Dies Natalis on 8 February 2021.

Salvador Santino Regilme, Jr. Associate Professor of International Relations and Program Chair of MA in International Relations, has been honored with the Cecil B. Currey Book Award for 2023. The accolade, presented by the Association for Global South Studies (AGSS), recognizes Regilme’s exceptional…

On January 29th, the first annual event of the SUPER MoRRI project will be held in the Lipsius building in Leiden and will be thematically organized around engaging the public with research and innovation. Registration is free; hope to see you there!

A highly refined drone camera that inspects the grape harvest or new microtechnology that can make painful biopsies redundant. Enthusiastic entrepreneurs presented their promising plans on 30 June in the HUBspot start-up centre.

‘I was very happy and honoured that my thesis was recognised as a valuable contribution to the topic of landscape archaeology.’

Michiel Veldhuis received the most public votes for the C.J. Kok Public Award and may therefore call himself Discoverer of the Year. Veldhuis researches how climate change affects savannah ecosystems in Africa and how we can protect them.

The online summer programme Space in Your Living Room by Leiden Observatory has won the first prize ‘Most Innovative Event’ of the Astronomy@Home Awards from the International Astronomical Union. In July and August 2020, participants could for example talk to real astronauts and imagine life forms in…

Some thirty Leiden students balanced on SUP boards for the Supping for Sustainability Lustrum activity. Together with alumnus Merijn Tinga, better known as the Plastic Soup Surfer, they paddled their boards through the Leiden canals and waterways, fishing plastic waste out of the water.

Under a sunny sky 44 teams completed the Leiden Science Run this weekend. They raised as much as 3450 euros for refugee-students’ association UAF.

Michael Ignatieff, Canadian author, university professor and former politician, has been appointed Cleveringa Professor for the 2013-2014 academic year at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Professor Ignatieff will deliver the Cleveringa lecture on 26 November 2013.

PhD student and research journalist Sebastiaan Grosscurt won a Tegel in May. In the data category, Grosscurt and his colleagues won the prestigious Dutch journalism award. 'For me, ecological research and journalism are two ways of achieving the same thing.'

Two of our colleagues received a royal decoration. Professor Jo Hermans became “Ridder in de Orde van Oranje Nassau”, and Professor Jan Schmidt became “Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau”. They receive the decoration as an acknowledgement for their extraordinary and selfless contribution to others…

Universe in a Box has been recognised for its educational value by Scientix — the European Network of Science Education. Universe in a Box is the low-cost, inquiry-based astronomy education resource of Universe Awareness (UNAWE). On Friday 22nd May this resource was awarded the Scientix Resources Award…

Visualising cell proteins without invasive techniques is possible with the help of fluorescence. During a lecture of the Natuurwetenschappelijk Gezelschap Leiden on 18 January, winner of the Spinoza Prize 2017 and founder of the field of single molecule optics Michel Orrit explained how this works.

This year, two Leiden physicists have earned a prestigious ERC Starting Grant. With a budget of 1.5 million euros, this is one of the largest individual grants for scientists.

Psychologist Floor van Meer won the first Trial & Error Award for her research on the effect of being distracted while eating on eating behavior. This award from the Journal of Trial & Error (JOTE) honors the often underappreciated aspect of research: learning from errors. For her publication, Van Meer…

Author Bibi Dumon Tak will be the new writer-in-residence at Leiden University from autumn 2020.

The free AI and Ethics course (in Dutch) is available online to anyone who wants to find out more about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence. One of the eight experts featured in the course is Professor Reijer Passchier. ‘Artificial Intelligence is spreading so fast and has such an impact…

Three Leiden students are in the running for the annual ECHO Award. This prize is for students from non-Western backgrounds who are actively engaged in society and promote diversity and inclusion. The three Leiden nominees are Gnimdou Yaovi Assih, Husna Jalal and Sohana Jethnani.

Neuroscientist Anne Urai has been awarded a Veni subsidy to further develop her ideas over the coming four years on how the brain makes choices. Why did she receive the award? Urai answers five questions about her Veni grant for young researchers.

Professor Kurt Deketelaere (KU Leuven and LERU) will receive the first Scaliger Medal, a new award offered by Leiden University to honour people or organisations that uphold the University’s values in a unique manner.

Alumna Jetske Breedeveld pursued both a Bachelor's in English Language and Culture and a Master's in Literary Studies at Leiden University. Her passion for film was a constant theme throughout her student life. Now working at the Leiden International Film Festival, she describes her job as 'really c…

On Thursday 3 March , Prof. Margaret Moore will give the annual Centre for Political Philosophy lecture.

As a humanities researcher, it is not always easy to explain to other people why what you do is important. It is easy for people to see why searching a cure for cancer matters, but it is a bit harder to make clear why it is also important to study language, culture, and history. One of the things that…

She left Leiden after her PhD and now, 14 years later, she returns as Professor of Extragalactic Astronomy. Mariska Kriek investigates how galaxies originate and evolve. And she is eagerly awaiting the launch for the new James Webb telescope: ‘The coolest things we are going to find are those we’re…

One of the speakers at the Diversity symposium on 22 November is Estela Mara Bensimon, highly honoured professor of Higher Education in the US. A second speaker is Peter Slort, from the Dutch National Police, responsible for Diversity. He will talk about how diversity is progressing within the police…

Can you prove whether a large quantum system truly behaves according to the weird and wonderful rules of quantum mechanics — or if it just looks like it does? In a groundbreaking study, physicists from Leiden, Beijing en Hangzhou found the answer to this question.

Electrochemist Marc Koper has won a special award: the Allen J. Bard Award in Electrochemical Science. 'Allen Bard has always been a great example to me, so it is extra special to win this award.' The award will be granted by the Electrochemical Society, at their half-yearly conference next year in…

Smallholder farms in tropical regions can double their crop production by 2030 compared to 2015, a study finds to which José Mogollón (Institute of Environmental Sciences) contributed. But to achieve this, the farmers must increase the input of phosphorus beyond what is currently foreseen. The study…

Egyptian artist Bahia Shebab will give a masterclass in Leiden on 13 December. She is one of this year's laureates of the Prins Claus Award and has become known for her subversive graffiti. Judith Naeff, lecturer in Cultures of the Middle East, introduces Shebab and calls on students to register for…

As of 1 March 2018, Elizabeth (Liesbeth) de Lange has been appointed as Professor of Predictive pharmacology at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR). She is head of the research group Predictive Pharmacology and mainly aims at developing mathematical models that can predict the effect…

The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Professor Ken Meier to the Chair of Bureaucracy and Democracy at the Institute of Public Administration. The appointment starts on 1 September for a period of five years.

Tessa van de Rozenberg and Daudi van Veen won the Synergy Award last month during a yearly conference of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The PhD - candidates from Leiden University College The Hague won the prize for their idea to develop a diagnostic tool for publishers to examine gender and ethnic…

A Dutch collaboration, including the SURF Open Innovation Lab and Leiden Observatory, has won Hyperion Research's HPC Innovation Excellence Award. This is the first time that a Dutch team has won the award. The team received the award for improving large-scale numerical simulations with deep learnin…

The Leiden University Visual Ethnography collection has been added to Alexander Street Press, an educational streaming video service. The master’s specialization Visual Ethnography has supported many talented individuals to produce inspiring films. About 70 master’s thesis films of the past 8 years…

Leiden University celebrates its 444th anniversary in 2019, and a special age requires a special logo. The logo for the celebration was designed by Clara Lezla, a student at the Royal Academy of Art The Hague.

An international group of scientists, led by Leiden physicist Sense Jan van der Molen, has developed the first switchable molecular diode. You can turn this on and off through humidity. Vice versa, it is a humidity sensor at the nanoscale. Publication on 4 December in Nature Nanotechnology.

Historian Frank Dikötter will receive an honorary doctorate from Leiden University for his work on the history of the Chinese Republican period and the People's Republic of China under Mao. He will be awarded the honorary degree during the university's Dies Natalis celebrations on 8 February 2017.

University lecturer Tazuko van Berkel is one of this year's laureates of the Ammodo Science Award. The award includes a sum of 350,000 euros that she can use as she wishes to explore new avenues in basic scientific research.

Four professors specialising in migration will soon be appointed as Leiden-Delft-Erasmus professors: Professor Thea Hilhorst and Professor Peter Scholten (both Erasmus University Rotterdam) and Professor Marlou Schrover and Professor Olaf van Vliet (both Leiden University) will each receive a second…