The immune system plays an important role in the development of atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of cardiovascular diseases. Thomas van der Heijden has discovered that immunosuppressants may play a preventative role. PhD defence 19 December.

Researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) are working on the first diagnostic test for leprosy that can be used outside a laboratory. This will not only reliably diagnose leprosy, but also be cheap and easy to use. Leprosy mainly occurs in low-income countries. A double challenge…

How do you compare the living environment of Dutch dairy cows with that of Masai cattle in East Africa? And how can we reverse biodiversity loss? These questions are central to CurveBend, an international research consortium in which ecologist Michiel Veldhuis plays a key role.

On Monday 18 March at 10:45 a deadly shooting took place on the 24 Oktoberplein in Utrecht, killing three people and severely injuring five others. Leiden University expresses its solidarity with the families left behind in the wake of this horrendous and regrettable incident. Several researchers of…

Who authored the best theses in Leiden University's Political Science BSc programmes?

‘Violence as a Population Health Problem’ is one of 33 interdisciplinary projects that have been launched thanks to a Kiem grant. The project team will analyse a large patient database to identify links between violence and other health problems. ‘Violence can also be an expression of other factors,’…

Recently, our respected and talented former colleague Bente Hilde Bakker passed away after a long and brave fight with illness. She received her mathematical training at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and also obtained her PhD there under the supervision of Jan Bouwe van den Berg and Robert van…

Prof. C. Bakels is an archaeobotanist who devoted most of her career researching farming, its (pre)history and influence on the landscape. Born in 1942, she got her first appointment as a lecturer at Leiden University in 1968. On Monday 16 April, we celebrated her 50th work anniversary.

Scientific research, heritage management and public outreach intertwined.

Farmers do not love them all. Microbes can cause tragic consequences for crops. Even the presence of just one pathogenic fungus or bacterium can drastically reduce yields. Still, there are exceptions. In that case, a pathogenic microbe is present in the soil, but does not cause any harm. Adam Ossowicki…

Leiden University has written an advisory report at the request of the Ministry of Justice and Security on a legislative bill to improve legal protection in youth protection. The report acknowledges the improvements that the proposed legislation would bring, but also provides criticism.

On 2 March 2020 the report Kind in proces: van communicatie naar effectieve participatie (Children in proceedings: from communication towards effective participation) was published. This multidisciplinary research report is the outcome of an inspiring collaboration between various departments at Leiden…

On the 6th of December, Buurtlab 070 and the Leiden University Green Office (LUGO) hosted an event at the Spinozahof in the Stationsbuurt, bringing students and local residents together to explore energy (in)justice through the serious game Sunjust.

How can you increase the effectiveness of inspectors using responsible artificial intelligence (AI)? This is the question the Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI) Lab AI4Oversight is tackling. By developing algorithms and methods, they try to provide optimal support for, for example,…

Elif Naz Kayran and Anna-Lena Nadler have received the European Political Science Review (EPSR) Prize for early career scholars.

The Dies Natalis for alumni was held on Saturday 10 February, organised by the Leiden University Fund (LUF) together with the University. Almost 500 alumni came together in the Kamerlingh Onnes building to celebrate the 443rd anniversary of the foundation of their alma mater.

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…

What is ‘teaching excellence’ in Higher Education? Which different teaching excellence training, promotion and reward schemes exist across Europe? How can a common European teaching scheme look like? The e-NOTE project led by Leiden University with the participation of Charles University and other partners…

Latin America matters! With its rich history, culture, its impressive resilience and creative innovation in the face of such a diverse array of challenges, Latin America can indeed show the way forward inspiring for positive change. Working together with Latin American institutions, our researchers…

Leiden chemists, together with colleagues at the University of York (UK) and Technion (Israel) have discovered a small, sugar-like molecule that maintains the integrity of tissue around a tumour during cancer. This molecule prevents tumour cells from spreading from the primary cancer site to colonise…

This masterclass examines the idea of disegno in relation to the early modern decorative arts by investigating the collection of Italian design drawings in the Rijksmuseum. Meaning both design and drawing, disegno was a fundamental concept in the development of artistic theory in early modern Europe…

Research conducted by the University of Leiden and the University of Curaçao found that the rights of undocumented children in Curaçao, mostly from Venezuela, are severely under threat, which does not trigger rigorous actions by the Curaçaoan and Dutch authorities.

Robbert Visser has won the Political Science Master’s Thesis Prize 2017. His study in the field of Political Theory is the latest milestone along Visser’s (in his words) ‘long road to the master’s title’. The jury was impressed by his work: 'Deeply engaging, providing a critical and balanced analysis,…

During eye contact, people tend to mirror the pupil size of the person they are conversing with. This social mechanism is related to the trust an individual has in the person they are talking to, according to research by psychologists at Leiden University. Publication in PNAS.

Like spoken languages, sign languages evolve organically and do not always have the same origin. This produces different ways of communication and annotation. Manolis Fragkiadakis wrote his PhD thesis on this.

Gelderland Heritage and Leiden University’s Faculty of Archaeology have won the European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award 2022 in the ‘research’ category with the Heritage Quest citizen science project. ‘Heritage Quest has shown that citizens can play an active role in protecting cultural heritage…

Cancer treatments often have an impact on people’s sexual health, but doctors and nurses do not discuss topics such as sexuality and intimacy with patients as a matter of course. This is what Esmée Krouwel, a physician-researcher at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), has discovered. With her research…

On Tuesday, September 17th, the Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, will present the plans of the new government of the Netherlands. This government’s aspirations, led by the party (PVV) of right-wing nationalist Geert Wilders, are mostly defined by budget cuts. One of the sectors receiving such budget cuts…

At the beginning of March 2020, the Dutch Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA) awarded Daan Weggemans of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs a research grant. The Taskforce is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

The Indonesian government has been trying to enforce marriage and divorce laws for some time. These efforts are encountering resistance from both local communities and the Indonesian Supreme Court. PhD candidate Al Farabi investigated where this resistance comes from.

Het onderzoeksproject heeft als doel ouders te helpen hun kleuters gezonde eetgewoonten aan te leren door het bevorderen van sensitieve voeding tijdens de fase wanneer peuters kieskeurig met eten worden.

A perfect world, who doesn't want that? But what is perfect is debatable. What is great for one person is disastrous for another. PhD student Zeynep Anli took a closer look at dreams for the future by looking at gender-separated utopias.

For her bachelor’s thesis, Molecular Science and Technology student Madouc Bergers synthesized her own molecule that can inhibit the breakdown of sugars. Although most students do not even manage to make one building block, Madouc made three. Partly because of this, she has been nominated for the Science…

During the ‘intelligent lockdown’ in the Netherlands this spring, the respondents in a Leiden study reported a mild increase in their stress levels. This extra stress could have a negative effect on families, particularly if parents already had psychological problems before the corona crisis.

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.

Next year in July Leiden University will receive around 1,500 Asia experts from around the world, for the 11th International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 11). This is the world's biggest Asia meeting. Besides an academic programme, the convention also offers an extensive cultural programme for…

With the help of software that mimics a human brain, ESA’s Gaia satellite spotted six stars zipping at high speed from the centre of our Galaxy to its outskirts. This could provide key information about some of the most obscure regions of the Milky Way.

On Tuesday 10 September 2019, the opening of the Master European Law took place in the Old Observatory. Ms Catherine De Bolle, Europol Executive Directeur, presented the opening lecture.

To truly help citizens, professionals sometimes need to dare to deviate from the rules. That was the main message during the meeting on ‘rebellious professionals’ in healthcare and well-being, held on 15 October in The Hague.

Two AI research projects receive funding; one in the field of oncology and one in the field of cardiology.

Elina Zorina presented her work-in-progress on “Distinctiveness in the Parliamentary Arena: Consequences for Vote Choice” during the GTGC lunch seminar on the 1st of May. Please find the abstract below:

As Real As You Want is a group exhibition focusing on navigating the virtual and real spaces, experiences and conversations.

At the transition of the Neolithic to Bronze Age, a societal clash took place between a male dominated oligarchy (also known as the patriarchy) and the matriarchy. The latter managed to exploit vulnerabilities in the 'bro-code' to reboot society's operating system.

Leiden Scientists are getting prepared to tackle future epidemics. A group of scientists led by Dr. Alireza Mashaghi has used innovative engineering approaches to make the first “Lassa Hemorrhagic Syndrome on-a-Chip”. World Health Organization has listed Lassa fever among diseases that pose the greatest…

Language is a little bit like owning a mobile phone. We use it all the time, but we don’t really understand how it works. Where is language located in our brain? Do all humans have language? These and many other questions will be answered by professor Marc van Oostendorp in the MOOC Miracles of Human…

At the conference Surrealism and Scotland on 23 and 24 March, Janice McNab will share the paper ‘Surrealism and the making of Mother’.

On December 12th & 13th composer and doublebass-player Christopher Williams will defend his thesis Tactile Paths to obtain his doctoral degree.

In Vietnam, foreign trade and culture are pervasive. Therefore, the need arises for students to learn more about cultural differences and intercultural communication. Tran Tran’s (PhD at ICLON) research focused on improving training in intercultural communication in Vietnamese higher education. Defence…

The Executive Board has appointed Professor Harold Linnartz as Professor of Laboratory Physics with effect from 1 June 2011. Linnartz has worked since 2005 as senior lecturer at the Leiden Observatory.

New research project “(Musical) Improvisation and Ethics”, recently awarded 1.7 million Euros by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)’s Young Independent Researcher Group program.