Income inequality in the Netherlands is an upward trend. Leiden University will examine the causes behind this increasing inequality and why income inequality persists. The research has been commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment.

How can we organize the food system in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region in a more sustainable and democratic way? Prof. Cristina Grasseni gave a presentation of her work at the Food Council Metropolitan Region Amsterdam.

It is with sadness that we have learned of the passing of our former colleague professor Herman Schaper on Tuesday 30 November this year. Herman held the Pieter Kooijmans Chair in Peace, Law and Security at Leiden University from 2014 to 2017.

Daily-adapted radiotherapy can help to more precisely target radiation dose to tumors compared to the current clinical practice, while avoiding radiosensitive organs-at-risk in the surrounding area. A main obstacle however is that new treatment plans need to be created every day, which is a manual and…

The International Network for School Attendance launched an inaugural conference in Norway, playing host to 14 countries, 254 participants. Lead of this international network for the Netherlands is psychologist David Heyne of Leiden University.

Op dinsdag 3 november is Ilektra Antonaki cum laude gepromoveerd op haar proefschrift over kapitaalbewegingen binnen de Europese Unie.

Using N2 dissociation on Ru(0001) as a representative showcase (for catalysts employed in the Haber-Bosch process), we have shown for the first time that non-adiabatic effects can substantially reduce a molecule’s dissociation probability on a metal surface. These effects are currently completely unaccounted…

Fifty thousand euros in expert knowledge and the title Young eScientist 2019: the National eScience Symposium on 21 November was very successful for computer scientist Lise Stork. She will use the knowledge to develop an application to make historical biodiversity data directly available to research…

Amidst concerns over what the re-election of Donald Trump will mean for the international system, Prof. Dr. Jan Aart Scholte will give a Cleveringa Lecture titled ‘Trump, geopolitics and the future of globalization’ on 28 November 2024.

During the Summer School, held at Leiden Law School in Leiden and the Hague, the participants were offered a wealth of lectures and workshops on international and regional children’s rights issues affecting children, families and communities.

Following a series of diplomatic catastrophes and human rights violations in the country, Nicaragua has left the Organization of American States (OAS) on 19 November 2023. Unlike Brexit, where the decision to leave the EU was based on the famous 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum,…

On 3 December 2019 Hanna Bosdriesz defended her dissertation on the fight against impunity for grave human rights violations in Latin America.

Professor Versteeg is currently Professor of Law at Virginia School of Law in the United States, where she has been working since 2011 as Miller Center Director and Human Rights Program Director at the Center for Comparative and International Law University of the Virginia School of Law.

On Friday 8 February, the first Plastic Avengers Conference took place in Amsterdam. Initiator Merijn Tinga, the Plastic Soup Surfer from Leiden, brought together ‘independent plastic fighters' to arrive at a manifesto against plastic pollution. The Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic was also invited…

For the second year in a row, the annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society will take place online, from 28 June to 2 July 2021. Also this year, the Leiden Observatory is hosting the online event. More than 2250 participants have registered for this conference, a record number.

South African professor Lungisile Ntsebeza will receive an honorary doctorate on the Foundation Day of Leiden University on Friday 7 February. Ntsebeza is an authority in the democratisation of rural South Africa and poverty reduction.

In an interview with Leidraad Alumni Magazine (no. 2, 2019), Marieke Liem states that it is almost impossible to compare between murders. ‘In our society we are inclined to frame murderers as monsters. Sometimes there is a very fine line between perpetrator and victim.’

The Global Summit, which took place from 12-16 January 2021, is an initiative by Richard Albert, the William Stamps Farish Professor in Law, Professor of Government, Director of Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and Founder & Director of the International Forum on the Future…

Starting April 13 a brand new exhibition is open for visit, titled 'Above and Beyond: Making Sense of the Universe for 100 Years

The World Data Visualization Prize for 2019 was awarded to Dimiter Toshkov, Associate Professor at the Institute of Public Administration, for his work on the theme of small states and good governance. The prize is a good way to raise awareness about the value of good data visualization.

Neuroscientist Elseline Hoekzema receives a large European grant from the European Research Council (ERC). This ERC starting grant for promising young researchers allows her to investigate the effects of pregnancy on the brain in detail.

On Friday 7 December 2019, the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) of Leiden University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) to further collaborative work on the promotion of the Cape Town Convention…

In Sci-Fi comic book Resist NOW!, wondrous adventures will illustrate possibilities to combat antimicrobial resistance. But the comic book will only be produced if enough money is raised to make the project into reality.

On Thursday 21 February 2019, the successful event ‘Interaction between Legal Systems 2.0: Reflections at the halfway point’ took place. The day’s events brought together the ILS 2.0 research profile areas of ‘SOLID: Solidarity Under Strain’ and ‘Policing the high seas: maritime law enforcement’.

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.

“The ideas from society should be heard in order to narrow the gap between government and the people”. These words from Kwagjin Choi, Korean diplomat and co-architect of South Korea’s People Diplomacy sum up why, in the view of this guest speaker at ISGA, foreign ministries should pay much more attention…

Which Italian student likes raw herring, but does not know Sinterklaas? During the Leiden Science Buddy Welcome Borrel, international students and their buddies found out over drinks and while playing a special bingo game.

International Women’s Day 2020 saw the first edition of the Leiden Top 50. The list that was announced includes 50 women who made a difference in Leiden in the past year.

How do you microscopically image zebrafish larvae? The new free online course ‘Imaging the Vertebrate embryo’ teaches you all about it. Leiden PhD candidates Salomé Muñoz Sánchez and Radoslaw Gora contributed to the course.

A lot has happened within our faculty over the past ten years.

In September 2019, the first students will start the new master's programme Governance of Sustainability. The programme has received an official accreditation from the Accreditation Organisation of The Netherlands and Flanders.

The coronavirus pandemic has had us working and studying at home, and this has had a positive effect on Leiden University’s sustainability results. This is apparent from the university’s new Sustainability Report 2020. The report also shows that nearly all the targets from the Environmental Policy Plan…

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…

Sometimes fascination can lead to in-depth research. Such is the case with Wahyu Widodo, who came across the Islamic Walikutuban ritual in Java in 2019, on which he subsequently wrote his PhD dissertation. Widodo: ‘Besides community, it also breeds political loyalty’

Jelle van Buuren, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, in conversation with the NOS, warns to remain alert despite the reduced threat level for terrorism.

Het team van vier studenten fiscaal recht heeft zich geplaatst voor de finale van de meest prestigieuze wereldwijde pleitcompetitie op het terrein van internationaal en Europees belastingrecht.

The French Astronomical Society SAF (Société Astronomique de France) has awarded its international astronomy prize, the Jules Janssen Prize, to Leiden professor and IAU president Ewine van Dishoeck for her scientific achievements.

Saniye Çelik, Professor by Special Appointment of Diversity, Inclusion, and Policing at Leiden University, has received the Woman in the Media Award at Beeld & Geluid in Hilversum. She was selected as the winner by the jury from three female experts with the most votes.

On Tuesday 2 April Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, came to Leiden to receive the Plastic Avengers Manifest from Plastic Soup Surfer Merijn Tinga. The Manifest contains five key areas for a new approach to deal with how we use plastic.

Professor P.F. (Paul) Wouters has been appointed dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences with effect from 1 January 2019. Wouters has been appointed for a period of three years and succeeds Professor Hanna Swaab, whose second term of office as dean expires this year. Swaab will remain…

Rianne Letschert, Universiteitsbestuur in Maastricht krijgt de opdracht een nieuw meerderheidskabinet te formeren. Ondanks haar Haagse outsiderstatus tonen partijen vertrouwen. Wim Voermans, hoogleraar Staatsrecht, is te gast in Pauw & De Wit om te praten over de nieuwe formateur.

Each month we will be spotlighting material we have been reading, or that have been recommended to us that relate to AI and a particular theme.

Many of our staff and students have won an award, received a grant, obtained an academic fellowship for their quality or have been socially engaged due to their specific expertise. See below for an overview per year.

An international team of astronomers has revealed the first 'chemical profile' of an exoplanet's atmosphere. The team, including Leiden astronomer Yamila Miguel and provenda Amy Louca, made the profile using so-called Early Release Science data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The results have been…

Having lectures on sustainability when you're a first-year student of Law, or a course on climate change when you're studying Public Administration may sound odd, but that is just what Associate Professor in Environmental Sciences Thijs Bosker wants to see happening. Together with his colleague Paul…

Her specialist field is molecular astrophysics, and she is the most quoted scholar in her field. In this, the year of astronomy, she is the ideal person to give the Dies lecture at the university with the world's oldest astronomy institute; it goes without saying that the lecture will be on the newest…

In traditional style, 2025 was ushered in at our faculty with the Meijers Lecture followed by the New Year's Reception. On Thursday 16 January 2025, the Meijers Lecture took place in the Lorentz Lecture Hall where the Meijers Prizes and the Van Wersch Springplank Prize were also awarded. At the New…

Graphic Novels and Comics have developed from pulp status to an entirely self-contained medium. This form of storytelling is not limited to stories of superheroes but has been used, molded and reshaped to display historical events, classic stories and autobiographical memoirs. But where should you begin…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many staff of Leiden institutes abroad to leave their posts in a hurry. How is the KITLV Jakarta team doing now? Director Marrik Bellen talks about the turbulent times for this Leiden institute and its staff. And can we learn anything from the Indonesian approach?