Since April 2023 the current war in Sudan has brought larger death, destruction, and displacement than any other ongoing armed conflict on earth. This dialogue brought together wise thinkers and excellent speakers from academia, civil society, policymakers, and youth to discuss how peace can be brought…

Last week, Ajay Gandhi, Assistant Professor at the Leiden University College, wrote an article about how spider's webs can explain the dynamics of social beings.

Young Leiden researchers Alisa van de Haar and Marleen Kunneman have received a KNAW Early Career Award. The prize, awarded annually for outstanding achievements, consists of 15,000 euros and a unique work of art.

The Steering Committee of the European Network on Teaching Excellence (ENOTE) is delighted to announce that Professor Hester Bijl, Rector Magnificus of Leiden University, will deliver the opening remarks for ENOTE’s first Academic Training Week.

Mindfulness is all the rage. But what is mindfulness and is this popular form of medication completely harmless? Come to the workshop on 19 September by Chris Goto-Jones, Professor of Philosophy and mindfulness therapist, and find out for yourself.

The feature drama film In Times of Rain will have its world premiere at the Guanajuato International Film Festival (#GIFF 2018) in Mexico. The film is a result of the Leiden University project ‘Time in lntercultural Context’, funded by the European Research Council.

How wonderful would it be to use art, technology and science in Ukraine's recovery? Young Ukrainians currently residing in Poland get guidance to develop creative programmes and activities that can later be implemented. Leiden astronomers Pedro Russo and Kateryna Frantseva cooperate in the project.

The Sustainability Monitor 2024 reveals that Leiden University has again taken significant steps to become a more sustainable and future-proof university. Since 1990, its carbon emissions have decreased by 50 per cent and, compared with 2019, its natural gas consumption has dropped by 32 per cent. Its…

Promotieonderzoek van Karin Smit bij het Instituut Pedagogische Wetenschappen aan de Universiteit Leiden

On the Master’s Open Day on 15 February Liza Vromen from Harlem arrives in Leiden to investigate the pre-master’s programme Psychology. As a matter of fact she will look beyond that programme for a master’s specialisation which fits her personal interest.

City dwellers in the Middle Ages were probably no worse off than people living in villages. Both groups had very different health risks, is Rachel Schats' conclusion from her research on bone material. PhD defence 3 November.

Leiden Law School takes great pride in announcing that the University of Strathclyde has bestowed an honorary doctorate on Professor Ann Skelton, Professor of Children's Rights in a Sustainable World at Leiden Law School and Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. This prestigious…

Psychologists Marieke Tollenaar, Anne Miers and Esther van den Bos received donations from the Leiden University Fund and Stichting Praesidium Libertatis to take crucial first steps in research projects that may eventually contribute to the well-being of vulnerable youth.

Leiden is proud to announce that the city has been selected to host the 33rd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), scheduled for 25-28 August 2027.

Do you want your research to fit the rubric of heritage? Is heritage a relevant concept here? These were some of the questions that came up in the lively discussion following twelve five-minute pitches given by Leiden researchers at the ‘Academic Open Mic’ workshop in the Lipsius building on Thursday…

Arnold Tukker and Mingming Hu (CML) will look for urban resilience solutions in the Dutch-Chinese ReSURE2 project that received 1.1M euro.

Frank van der Horst is per 1 februari 2026 benoemd tot bijzonder hoogleraar Pedagogische Wetenschappen.

From more natural beaches to research on how peace advances biodiversity. Two Leiden research projects have been awarded funding from the European Biodiversa+ partnership. These are grants for interdisciplinary research on restoring biodiversity.

Anthropologist Erik de Maaker has received a grant from the Himalayan Universities Consortium worth USD 37.000, along with researchers from Yunnan Minzu University (Kunming, China), Sikkim University (India), the Royal University of Bhutan (Thimpu, Bhutan). The grant, to be used in 2018/2019, is meant…

Four researchers from Leiden University have been awarded prestigious Vici grants the Dutch Research Council (NWO) has announced. The honoured applications are from researchers at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden Observatory, the LUMC and the Faculty of Archaeology.

Jonathan Todres appointed as Rotating Honorary Chair in Enforcement of Children’s Rights 2024/2025

On May 13 2022, Frans W. Saris will present the third of a series of "Hello World!" lectures, organised by the Media Technology MSc program of Leiden University. In his lecture titled "Computer Modeling to Save the World", Frans Saris addresses three alarming crises: energy and climate, biodiversity…

Sustainability researchers can play an important role in the energy transition. But what if their partners are not (yet) sustainable and science itself has adverse effects? This is the subject of an online talk by researcher Thomas Franssen on 16 December with a discussion afterwards. ‘Clean energy…

As young people’s friendships improve, their mental resilience also increases. This is according to research conducted by Anne-Laura van Harmelen, Professor of Brain, Safety and Resilience at Leiden University.

Feeling good doesn’t just lift our mood—it also helps us stay flexible and resilient. A new study by an international team of neuroscientists shows that natural brain opioids released after rewards play a key role in broadening attention, offering fresh insights into stress, cognition, and well-bein…

Five questions about PREPARE, the new research project funded by the EU and led by Joana Cook. Cook is Assistant Professor of Terrorism and Political Violence at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and lead investigator on PREPARE.

Six professors or associate professors from Leiden University have officially been appointed 'Medical Delta Professor'. Their inauguration took place at the Medical Delta Conference in Delft on 8 April.

On 27 February, 2019, Kampala International University (KIU) was the venue of the conference ‘Digital Health and Development in Data Science in Uganda’. Professor Mirjam van Reisen from the Leiden Centre of Data Science was one of the main speakers.

Explore how cultural heritage can proactively respond to global crises, from geopolitical conflicts to climate change, through innovative cross-cultural collaboration between Latin American stakeholders and Una Europa.

How important is a child’s right to meaningful peer relationships? Vaishnavi Ramalingam wrote her master’s thesis on this topic, and was recently awarded the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) Jan Brouwer Thesis Prize 2026.

Michelle Spierings has been awarded the ‘Glushko Dissertation Prize’ for her thesis work on: ‘The Music of Language: Exploring grammar, prosody and rhythm perception in zebra finches and budgerigars’. The award recognises and honours young researchers conducting ground-breaking research in cognitive…

Camille Lefebvre, PhD candidate at the Graduate School of International Studies of Université Laval and the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society of Leiden Law School, has been selected as a recipient of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship and Leadership Program.

Anmol Dhawan (24) graduated cum laude from the Advanced LLM in Air and Space Law in Leiden on 28 August 2023. He comes from Mumbai in India and did his bachelor law studies at National Law University Delhi. He has been in the Netherlands since September 2022, so over one year now.

Leiden physicist Bernard van Heck is one of the seven young Dutch scientists who will be travelling to the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. Promising young scholars from all over the world have the opportunity to meet with Nobel Prize winners at this famous science conference.

Simay Çetin won the FSW Master’s Thesis Prize 2021 with her thesis “Interpreting Culture through Embodied Practice: An anthropological study of sexuality among Dutch Women with Turkish Migrant backgrounds”. She was supervised by Prof. dr. Peter Pels. According to the jury is Simay’s thesis not only…

Vietnamese mathematician Dung is the first to complete his dissertation within the Erasmus Mundus Algant PhD-programme, under the supervision of Prof.dr.Hendrik Lenstra. The defence of his thesis ‘Profinite groups with a rational probabilistic zeta function’ will take place on 14 May 2013 on 13h45 in…

Ziyang Gao received the Stieltjes Prize from Koen Becking, chairman of the Executive Board, for his thesis 'The mixed Ax-Lindemann theorem and its applications to the Zilber-Pink conjecture'.

After his PhD defense on 25 September Frits Veerman will go to the University of Oxford to do research at the Centre for Mathematical Biology.

On on 29 January 2024, it was announced that Aylin Alexa Zainea has won the Thesis Award from the Dutch Data Protection Authority. She wrote her thesis for the Advanced Master programme on Law and Digital Technologies hosted by eLaw, Center for Law and Digital Technologies. Her thesis entitled ‘Automated…

On Saturday 13 May, the 11th edition of the International Cultural Festival took place. This festival brings together international students, Dutch students and inhabitants of Leiden for a trip around the world in one day.

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

In 2025, Leiden University College (LUC) celebrates its 15th anniversary with the theme 'Global challenges, local impact'. To kick off this anniversary year, we have shared fifteen stories over the past few weeks showcasing how LUC students, researchers, and alumni contribute to societal challenges…

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An impressive 1,300 international students from 84 different nations got to know each other at the University in Orientation Week Leiden. Where do they come from and why did they choose Leiden?

The Faculty of Archaeology's own home-grown journal Inter-Section has released a new volume. Inter-Section offers students and PhD candidates the unique chance to publish in a peer-reviewed journal. Karel Kuipers and Tullio Abruzzese contributed to the new volume.

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