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.

The Casimir Research School and the Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences will be participating in the first Graduate Programme. This was announced on Wednesday 12 August by Minister Plasterk (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science). Leiden University is a partner in both schools. Nine Dutch…

For a brief period Leiden University was the hub of the world of linguistics. The 48th annual conference of the Societas Linguistica Europaea was held here at the start of September. Almost 600 linguists came from all corners of the world to the city of discoveries to attend this prestigious event.

Americans are electing a new president in November but they also have other choices to make in the polling booth. Alumnus Sanne Rijkhoff works at a Texas university and is trying to help make students more aware of the elections.

After the May elections a new University Council has now taken seat. The university democracy is the result of the long-lived national student protests in 1969. Students from Leiden joined the protests for greater representation, although their actions were less revolutionary than at other universities.…

On 1 July – Keti Koti, in the year ahead, our university community will be able to reflect extensively on the history of slavery by engaging in research, education and many other activities.

From 1 January 2017 Jojanneke van der Toorn will be the first holder of the Workplace Pride special chair, with a focus on the inclusion of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). This new chair is a joint initiative of the Workplace Pride Foundation, Leiden University, and the…

On 24 April 2025, political scientist Pawan Kumar Sen will defend his PhD dissertation,

Deaf and hard-of-hearing children can find it challenging to blend in during recess on the playground. Yet, in recent studies, two PhD researchers studying children in China and Portugal showed that the emotional development of these children is largely on par with their hearing classmates.

Opening ceremony Advanced Master programmes

In 2013, Sylvestre Bonnet received an ERC Starting Grant to kill cancer with molecules that can be activated by light. Two postdocs and three PhD students later, the end approaches of his so far successful project.

At the conference of the Honours College Science & Society, students present TED Talks on a social issue of their interest. ‘It brings together everything they have learned in the past two and a half years.’

How unique is the human capacity for learning and adapting to an environment? In field research – in the rainforest and Artis Zoo – primatologist Karline Janmaat is studying how humans and other primates adapt to their environment in their search for food. She will give her inaugural lecture as Professor…

Why have some European countries responded faster to the coronavirus outbreak than others? While in some countries the lockdown had already been declared when relatively few cases were known, others did not take action until thousands of people were already infected and hundreds were already dead. What…

‘Raising awareness of the disorder is crucial since borderline personality disorder (BPD) still faces considerable stigma ’, says Anne Krause-Utz (Clinical Psychology) . Together with an international team of excellent scientists, Krause-Utz provides an update of current knowledge about this disorder,…

Leiden University publishes the highest percentage of preprints in the Netherlands. Why is that and why post your article online before it has been peer reviewed? Professor of Quantitative Science Studies and keen preprint poster Ludo Waltman explains.

The Veni grant is awarded annually by NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research). This year, multiple researchers from Leiden University and 2 researchers who will soon be working at the university will receive a Veni grant from the NWO. Thanks to this grant, which can amount to up to 320,000…

The Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science congratulates alumnus Pepijn van Heiningen and the with the Technische Hochschule Köln shared PhD-student Samineh Bagheri. At the SSCI 2016 conference on computational intelligence in Athens last week, both of them won an award for the high quality of…

Eleven talented Leiden researchers with several years of research experience have been awarded a Vidi subsidy to set up or expand their own line of research.

On 23 March a Sonology concert took place in the Arnold Schönbergzaal at the Royal Conservatoire, dedicated to Gabriel Paiuk’s The Construction of an Imaginary Acoustic Space, a composition for ensemble and electronics performed by New European Ensemble.

Sarah Cramsey, Special Chair for Central European Studies and Assistant Professor of Judaism and Diaspora studies, recently received an ERC grant for historical research into early child care in Central and Eastern Europe. In this short interview, she will give some more information on her grant, her…

Hundreds of thousands of Dutch people suffer from pain caused by knee osteoarthritis and the number is rising fast. Prof. Jaap Harlaar specialises in clinical biomechanics. His research is helping improve osteoarthritis treatment. Harlaar has been appointed Medical Delta Professor and now holds posts…

On Tuesday 19 December 2017 at 16:15 hrs Anneloes Kuiper-Slendebroek will defend her doctoral thesis 'Rechter over Grenzen' which deals with the application and interpretation of international law in Dutch private law. Supervisor is Martijn Polak, co-supervisor is Jeroen van der Weide.

Insults have a stronger effect on people from honour cultures because their honour is at stake. Escalations can be prevented if their sense of honour is left intact or if the perpetrator expresses sincere regret Leiden psychologist Said Shafa has found.

During the award ceremony of the Christiaan Huygens Prize on 16 October, mathematician Rosa Schwarz received an honourable mention. Schwarz, former PhD candidate of the Mathematical Institute, received the mention for her dissertation ‘Logarithmic approach to the double ramification cycle’.

Nationalism is commonly regarded as posing a challenge to international stability and regional and global order more generally. Arguably, nationalism encourages narrowly defined and zero-sum security policies; it works against compromises and consensus; it undermines international trust and cooperation.…

Mechanics play a larger role in blood vessel formation, and other developmental biology, than previously thought. Cells appear to respond to mechanical signals, such as pressure. Through the extracellular matrix, a network of fibrous proteins, cells can supposedly exchange those mechanical signals over…

The Centre for Digital Scholarship of Leiden University Libraries (UBL) and the Leiden Centre for Digital Humanities would like to invite you to the symposium on Tools Criticism on Thursday 21 November, from 10.00-18.00. The symposium will be held in the Vossius room of the University Library at Witte…

Graphene, the ultra-thin wonder material just a single carbon atom in thickness, holds the promise of such impressive applications as wear-resistant, friction-free coatings. But first manufacturers have to be able to produce large sheets of graphene under precisely controlled conditions. Dirk van Baarle…

With the departure of Tesse Stek to the Royal Dutch Institute in Rome for three years, Andrzej Antczak will take over the role of Departmental Head for World Archaeology in September 2018. We spoke with him to learn more about his background, ideas, and plans for the future.

Friday 25 April 2025 | Leiden University Institute of Security and Global Affairs – The Hague

What’s at stake at the NATO summit in The Hague? Three academics from Leiden share their insights.

On December 10, Kazakh pianist and composer Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin will perform at the Stadsgehoorzaal in Leiden. A remarkable event where music and modern physics come together.

Using speech analysis to resolve crimes. That's what Meike de Boer (26) is aiming to do with her PhD research. 'By analysing how a person pronounces

Viktorija Kostadinova, from Macedonia and currently a second-year PhD student at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, has just returned after two and a half months at the University of Michigan: ‘It was a truly rewarding experience.’

For a number of years, two ‘boxes’ in the Canary Islands and Chile have been scouring the skies for exoplanets that orbit bright stars. PhD candidate Geert Jan Talens helped develop these ‘MASCARA’ telescopes and has made the first discoveries with them. Together with him, we answer the main questions…

On 12 September the students of the European Law Master gathered in the Lorentzzaal for the festive opening of their programme.

What with coronavirus, the American elections and the Brexit botheration, we had almost forgotten that something miraculous happened in 2020: the repressed people of Belarus rallied against dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years. Months later, what remains of the protest?…

A soap film with chemically distinct sides: it's the latest breakthrough in the research led by chemist Sylvestre Bonnet. This unique soap film, along with an innovative device capable of continuously producing new soap films, forms a crucial piece in the puzzle for the development of artificial pho…

What is the influence of the 2016 ban on free plastic bags on the environment? Industrial ecologist Stefano Cucurachi received a LUF grant of €75.000 to answer this question.

Jan de Vetten brengt zijn promotieonderzoek ook uit in boekvorm. ‘In de ban van goed en fout’ beschrijft voor het eerst - op basis van archiefonderzoek en interviews - op samenhangende wijze de bestrijding van de CP en CD, en ook de reactie daarop van die partijen. Waarom werden ze zo fel werden bestreden?…

Better pay and new agreements with streaming platforms: the actors’ strike that brought Hollywood to a standstill a few days ago is mainly about money. But there is something else that film actors are worried about: the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence. Is this fear justified?

The Netherlands in September 2021 could be characterised as a low-trust society. Trust in the government has declined significantly in the past one-and-a-half years: from almost 70 percent in April 2020 to less than 30 percent in September 2021. There has also been a slight decrease in trust between…

From predicting Alzheimer’s to the growth of organisms: psychologist Marjolein Fokkema’s algorithms can be used in many disciplines. They also provide inspiration for her songs, theatre shows and life lessons. What drives this rocking researcher?

Leiden University archaeologists receive multiple awards for research on interaction between the Greek and Roman world and ‘The East’

During the second Arthur Docters van Leeuwen Lecture on 2 December, AIVD Director Erik Akerboom underlined how the changing threat landscape demands reflective leadership, transparency where possible and close cooperation to protect the democratic legal order.

Loss of cultural heritage first brings to mind the destruction in the Middle East. But in the Caribbean it is mainly natural processes such as coastal erosion and human interventions driven by economics that are damaging the local natural and cultural heritage. A conference is taking place on Bonaire…

For her research, PhD candidate Liselore Tissen put one famous painting after another through a 3D scanner. The resulting reproductions were indistinguishable from the originals. But what does this mean for our interpretation of art?

Wijnhaven is the pride of our The Hague campus. For the first time, three faculties jointly presented their programmes in this modern building. We asked the school leavers and students why they had come to the Student for a Day experience.

Does medicine make patients feel better or worse? We are getting better at predicting this from people’s DNA profiles, says Professor Jesse Swen. ‘It never fails to fascinate me how one DNA base pair can have such a huge effect on treatment with medication and the outcome.’