This weekend, the very sad news reached us that former employee Peter Hovenkamp died during an excursion in Malaysia. He was surprised by a flash flood in a cave in Gunung Mulu National Park.

On 10 October 2018 Maarten Aalbers presented his PhD chapter on the application of state aid law to the professional sports sector at the 8th International PhD Students' Conference on Competition Law at the University of Bialystok.

University Lecturer Andrew Gawthorpe discusses on The Conversation how Trump's Greenland proposal overlooks the historical discrimination faced by Indigenous Alaskans.

Ben Wielstra studies hybrid zones, regions in which distinct populations of organisms meet, mate and produce genetically admixed offspring. In the journal Current Biology, he introduces hybrid zones in an accessible way.

China’s internet giants like Alibaba and Tencent go global. However, Alibaba shares its data with the Chinese state. The state links the Chinese social credit system to consumer’s profiles. What if Alibaba takes over the market?

The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Professor Koen Camimada Vice-Dean, and portfolio holder for Education, at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, with effect from 1 December 2018.

Dutch radio corporation ‘BNR’ contacted Willemijn Aerdts, a lecturer at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, for her opinion on the arrest. ‘It seldom happens that someone gets caught. What is interesting is that he was both caught and is being prosecuted in the USA.’

Dear friends of the NVIC, Yesterday morning, the terrible news reached us that professor Fred Leemhuis, former director of the NVIC, passed away after a short illness in Groningen. He was a great and beloved friend of our institute. We wish his wife Vreni, his sons Rob and Benni and their wives,…

Last week, to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Prof. Dr. Ton Liefaard shone a fresh light on children’s rights, in Italy.

The last blog of Leiden Law Blog of 2018 was written by Ladislav Kováč. He discusses the proposal for the Single-use Plastics Directive of the EU which was agreed upon on 19 December.

As of 1 October 2024, Professor Gerrard Boot, Senior Justice at the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, will transfer to the Central Appeals Tribunal. He has already been a Deputy Justice at the Tribunal for some time now.

Marcel Cobussen on

On 22 February 2017 political scientist Tim Mickler (Leiden University) defended his dissertation on the structure, composition, and working of parliamentary committees. He was awarded the exceptional predicate 'cum laude'.

On Tuesday 15 September 2015, Bart de Smit has been appointed as professor of Algebra and Number Theory at the Mathematical Institute of Leiden University.

Associate professor Eric Storm discusses the return of imperial ambitions in global politics on The Conversation. He argues that leaders like Putin, Xi, and Trump challenge the post-WWII international order.

Russian writer and cardiologist Maxim Osipov will come to the Netherlands for a year to teach in Leiden about Russian literature, his own work and the political situation in Russian.

On 8 December 2015, Prof. Carsten Stahn gave a Pufendorf Research seminar at the University of Lund. He spoke on International Criminal Justice and Post-Colonial Critique, drawing on a chapter in a forthcoming volume on Contested Justice, published with Cambridge University Press.

Dong Guo was awarded two poster prizes for his poster ‘Molecular Mechanism of Allosteric modulation at G protein-coupled Receptors: Insight from a Binding Kinetics Study at the Human A1 Adenosine Receptor’ at the FIGON Dutch Medicines Days, October 6th-8th this year.

On Monday 11 September, Matthew Hoye presented an early draft of a grant proposal on 'Remittance, Paradigms, and Extreme Cases' during a GTGC lunch seminars.

On 11 February, during a symposium at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, the first copy of the book ‘Corporate Structuring’ was presented to the publisher, Gert-Jan Schinkel.

Minister Dijkgraaf van onderwijs wil het aantal internationale studenten terugdringen. Maar mag Nederland dat wel? En zo ja, is het ook wenselijk? Deze vragen behandelde Mark Klaassen, universitair docent bij het Europa Instituut, tijdens de slotbijeenkomst van het Honours College Law op 12 juni.

Types of supervision for prisoners on conditional release include the requirement to report regularly to a parole officer, electronic house arrest or community service. These are all serious measures for the person on whom they are imposed and for society. But it is a subject on which little research…

A successful series of lectures on interior design, a symposium on four-poster beds and a new series of study afternoons on the horizon. University lecturer Alexander Dencher knows how to hold the attention of a growing audience. How does he do it? And what makes the history of interior design so fa…

On the occasion of the retirement of Robert Ross, Professor in African History at Leiden University, his successor and former student Jan-Bart Gewald wrote a valedictory note.

Ecologist Sebastiaan Grosscurt became a successful wildlife journalist after graduating. But he decided to focus on science instead. He started his PhD research this year on the cumulative effect of light and noise pollution on animal behaviour.

The field of leadership suffers from ‘adjectivism’, says Professor Ben Kuipers. He immediately caveats this by saying that he too is going furnish the word leadership with an adjective: ‘Public’. But the goal here is to view leadership in a different light in his new role as Professor of Public Lead…

A standing ovation. A wave and a smile from the president. A final selfie. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed students in the Netherlands for the first time on Tuesday morning via a livestream in The Hague. He did so in front of two packed lecture halls at both Leiden University and The…

Higher education research improves the quality of education. And these investments more than pay for themselves in terms of well-being and prosperity. This is what Professor of Education Science Roeland van der Rijst will say in his inaugural lecture.

Alexandre Genest will defend his PhD dissertation ‘Performance Requirement Prohibitions in International Investment Law’ as part of a double PhD programme at the Universities of Leiden and Ottawa.

Sharing his passion for sustainability with students—that’s what Thijs Bosker enjoys most about his work. As an environmental scientist, he conducts ecotoxicological research, but next to this he loves teaching. ‘Everyone can make a difference in their own way.’

It doesn't happen every day that the research project of a first-year bachelor’s student results in a scientific publication. And not only that, but as first author and on the cover of a leading physics journal. ‘We have given our lab education a thorough overhaul and it is paying off.’

If you want to talk about inclusion, you have to bring up the subject of race. This is what Kamna Patel said at Leiden University’s annual Diversity Symposium on 22 January. She is Vice-Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at University College London. We spoke to her beforehand.

Black-and-white photographs filled with solemn young men and distinguished professors line the walls of the Grand Auditorium. Young women are missing from the photos; women rarely obtained PhDs 50 years ago. And this article is about that group, the PhD candidates between 1966 and 1972, who were invited…

The housing crisis is affecting a substantial group of Dutch citizens and is one of the main election themes this year. How did things get this far and what should the new cabinet do in the coming four years to address the problems? Three Leiden researchers give their answer.

The elections finally seemed to be about substance again. Housing, migration, healthcare and security were widely discussed. Yet once more, political style took centre stage - because both Rob Jetten and Henri Bontenbal won through a deliberate use of style.

Can politicians say whatever they want? What is the limit and when can the Public Prosecution Service act? PhD candidate Jip Stam examined the limits of free speech in criminal law. 'Intervening too soon can threaten democracy and the rule of law,' he warns.

The speed at which science is changing our lives gives rise to tensions and concerns. In his talk at Leiden University, Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf (Education, Culture and Science) said we should talk more about science’s relationship with society and political decision-making.

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded chemist Dr Alexander Kros a Starting Independent Researcher Grant of 1.4 million euro. He will be using the grant to study how molecules penetrate the natural barrier of a cell membrane. If his research is successful, it will in time bring about a revolution…

Indonesia still has a long way to go before the country can truly flourish, was the message given by Indonesian Vice President Boediono during his visit to Leiden University on 26 March. He viewed collections in the University Library and the Hortus, and was presented with the William of Orange medal…

When people and tigers use the same forest, their ability to cope and co-adapt to the influences of the other is much higher than currently understood. This is one of the conclusions drawn by Leiden BioSocial researcher Shekhar Kolipaka, who researched whether tigers can survive in human-dominated…

Amid the many traditions of Leiden’s 3 October Festival, a relative newcomer is beginning to take hold: the Science Market. At market stalls, the people of Leiden could explore or even participate in Leiden’s research – performing an ‘operation’ in the street, for example.

This week, around 1,200 brand new students from 68 different countries are getting to know each other and their new student city. Orientation Week Leiden (OWL) got off to a good start on sunny Lammermarkt, which was packed with enthusiastic internationals.

President Putin will be officially opening the Netherlands–Russia Year on 8 April in Amsterdam. Leiden Slavist Sjeng Scheijen was responsible for putting together the cultural programme. How much freedom did he have in doing so? ‘The Dutch photography project on the demolition of Sochi districts was…

What does a political party do in the wake of a disastrous electoral defeat? Martijn van Nijnanten researched this and discovered that parties turn to core values from the past. PhD defence on 12 September.

Museum Boerhaave commemorated the hundredth anniversary of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity with the exhibition ‘Einstein & Friends’. The exhibition shined light on the famous physicist’s Dutch friends and his love for Leiden. A review featuring seven images can be found below.

A long-term mathematical collaboration between South Africa and Leiden will continue with the appointment of Marcel de Jeu as professor by special appointment at the University of Pretoria. He will be working in the field of Positivity.

Worldwide, countries are barely prepared for major borderless crises such as extreme natural disasters or other unexpected calamities that destabilise society, Professor of Political Science, Arjen Boin, warns. In his inaugural address on 23 October he makes some recommendations.

A beautiful speech by vice-dean Bart de Smit, a mini-lecture on exoplanets and the presentation of three faculty awards. That's how we started the new year at the faculty. Together with colleagues and students, we raised our glasses to a new year full of great collaborations, science and education.

When children wean off from heavy medication, they often experience withdrawal symptoms. The severity of these symptoms is often difficult to predict. Pharmacologist Bas Goulooze developed a computer model to determine the best weaning strategy for each child. His research has now been published in…

Digital journalism is transforming the way in which information and communication technologies are used by media workers. With this change journalist practices, norms and values are also being reshaped. This is the conclusion of Tomás Dodds PhD research.