A cannon, a sabre, guns: these Sri Lankan objects had been in the Rijksmuseum for centuries. In early December, they were returned to Sri Lanka. Associate Professor of Colonial History Alicia Schrikker led the research that formed the basis for the restitution and published a volume on the findings…

‘Teaching is not merely a profession; it’s a calling.’ These were the words of Ayo Adedokun on winning the LUS Teaching Prize at the opening of the academic year on 6 September. The prize is for the best lecturer of the year.

Jaïr van Rhenen studied Medicine in Leiden and is now a GP in the largely religious Veenendaal. Before this, he worked as a tropical medicine doctor in Lesotho. ‘If you have the prospect of an afterlife, you often respond differently to illness.’

NATO not only safeguards our security and stability, but also defends Enlightenment principles, promoting prosperity, health and freedom. This is what eminent psychologist and thinker Steven Pinker argued to a packed Great Auditorium.

Organisations like the UN and the EU should be given more powers to combat transboundary problems. This is the message of a report published by the Swedish SNS Democracy Council, whose authors include Prof. Jan Aart Scholte of Leiden University. The researchers also wrote the following article.

Frans de Haas started his work at the MI with a clear mandate. Listening and talking are what he will mainly be doing ‘My role is to make sure that everyone feels comfortable in the new situation.’

Space for open dialogue on historical slavery was created at the Keti Koti Table at Museum De Lakenhal, organised by Leiden University and the Municipality of Leiden. There, just metres away from 17th-century paintings, Leideners shared a ritual meal and spoke about the effects of slavery and our colonial…

Masses of hamburgers, steaks, cheese and a lot of eggs: Americans love their animal products. But researcher Oliver Taherzadeh discovered that only a relatively small group of high-volume consumers need to modify their diet to achieve an enormous environmental gain.

Professor Marc Koper researches how you can use electrical energy to make or break chemical bonds. He has just been awarded a Spinoza Prize, the Netherlands’ highest personal science award, for his fundamental research into how this form of electrolysis works.

When we talk about the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it is not just about the Netherlands. On the contrary: our Kingdom consists of no less than four countries, three of which are Caribbean islands. This structure is complex, to say the least. Although all countries are officially equivalent, in practice…

The announcement was made shortly before the summer break: from 1 September the annual Performance & Development (P&D) interview will have a new format and also a new name. The P&D interview will be changing to GROW (Gesprekken over Resultaat, Ontwikkeling en Welzijn): Conversations on Performance,…

For some it will sound like music to their ears, but for others is may sound less appealing: now the advice on working from home has changed, we can once again go to the office. After a period of working from home, which for some lasted almost two years (with maybe a short break), it can be a big transition.…

ESA’s space telescope Gaia, which maps the Milky Way, completes its active phase of scanning the sky on 15 January. Over the past decade, Gaia has made more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other cosmic objects. ‘Gaia is already the discovery machine of the decade,’ Leiden…

In the ‘Educatips’ column, psychology lecturers share their most important insights on teaching. This month: Anouk van der Weiden, together with a team of colleagues and students, developed a module on critical reading, application, and writing. 'Students often think: who am I to criticise a published…

Two deans: one leaving and one just arriving. Paul Wouters was deputising at the Faculty from March up to December. As of January he returns to his 'ordinary' role as dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Jasper Knoester is taking over from him, as he will be leaving Groningen for Leiden. How did…

The intake of bachelor’s students from classic immigration countries whose prior education was in the Netherlands does not reflect the growing diversity in society. This is according to data from Statistics Netherlands.

Following our Leiden Brussels Alumni Event, I (external officer M. Blaauw, ed.) met our very own Leiden Law alumna Helena-Loutas Paraskeva. An Australian who works for the European Commission. Interesting, how did she get this job, what does she do and how did her Master in Leiden affect or influence…

Education, ICT

Several FGW projects have received a COIn grant. This grant, ranging from 5,000 to 30,000 euros, is intended to improve research infrastructure, for example by purchasing software licences, applications, electronics or laboratory equipment.

Professor by Special Appointment Anouk Goemans has received the National Youth Care Award 2025 from the ‘Stichting Steunfonds Pro Juventute’. The cash prize of €30,000 will go towards her research on youth care and youth protection.

Simulation project EAGLE has won the 2022 Group Achievement Award of the Royal Astronomical Society. EAGLE is a large collection of simulations about the formation of galaxies. The largest simulation contains as many as 6.8 billion particles and took months to calculate on the world's fastest superc…

Going beyond gender diversiteit en inclusie wetenschap

Europe is expected to experience a greater frequency of severe floods. Paul Hudson discusses the challenges of flood management The Conversation.

For the third time in a row, Leiden University has received a positive assessment in the Institutional Audit for the way it provides good teaching and a vibrant quality culture. Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl was presented with the official certificate.

Nederland heeft geen nationale bloem en daar wil het radioprogramma Vroege Vogels verandering in brengen. Verschillende experts van Universiteit Leiden zijn betrokken bij de verkiezing.

Organisation

Leiden and The Hague have an extra 450 trees thanks to a special campaign to mark the 450th anniversary of the Relief of Leiden and Leiden University’s foundation. Over the past few months, Stadslab Leiden has worked on an initiative to plant young trees with the residents of the two cities.

Education, Organisation, Research

It has become tradition: the opening of the faculty year in the Hortus Botanicus. This year, too, staff and students of the Faculty of Humanities gathered in the botanical garden on the first Wednesday of September to raise a glass to the new academic year.

As part of its plans to introduce a stricter asylum policy, the Dutch cabinet wants to expand checks at internal borders within the EU. Professor of Law and Society Maartje van der Woude tells Dutch daily newspaper NRC that this is a symbolic measure: ‘Border checks will not counter the right to seek…

Over the past year, AI experts across the university have launched initiatives for and with lecturers, students and staff. This is in response to the growing role of AI in society, with its impact and associated risks calling for greater awareness within our sector. All information for lecturers is…

Beautiful prizes, special speeches, and a reception with live music. The well-attended Leiden Science New Year's reception was a delightful way to start the year 2023. Dean Jasper Knoester opened the event after which it was announced who were chosen teacher and bachelor student of the year.

Hanan Hammad and Eftychia Mylona give a master class focusing on conceptual and methodological challenges in writing histories of marginalized social groups.

On 10 June, students and staff from all the Dutch universities will go on strike against the government’s proposed budget cuts. The day after the strike, on 11 June, the House of Representatives will debate the Spring Budget Memorandum, which includes the proposed cuts. The university supports this…

Aoife Fleming attended the climate summit in Glasgow as UN Youth Delegate for the Netherlands. She recently graduated with a master’s degree in Financial Law.

In May of 2023, an agreement was signed between Leiden PhD candidate Jonathan Ouellet and General Director Onggar Akan of the A. Kh. Margulan Archaeological Institute in Almaty. The aim: a detailed study of the numismatic history of Southern Kazakhstan.

Maurijn van der Zee searches for insecticides that protect crops without harming wildlife or leaving residues in our food. His GREENSHIELD project received funding from the NWO Open Technology Programme.

Last month, eLaw had a strong presence at the annual Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels. All Law and Digital Technologies master's students attended the programme and many of our researchers made contributions: moderating panels, hosting book clubs, and presenting ongoing…

Carel Stolker will retire as Rector Magnificus of Leiden University on 8 February. As a retirement gift he is setting up a fund for first-generation students and academics. You too can donate.

Education, Research

On Friday 11 March (16.00 hrs.) Minister Dijkgraaf (Education, Culture and Science) will give a speech at Leiden University entitled ‘When knowledge becomes critical’. In the speech, he will address several critical challenges in science and society. The livestream will be open to all.

Acquiring external funding for research is becoming increasingly important. Proper support for applying for research grants is essential in this process. As of December, the team of the Meijers Research Institute, responsible for the organisation and quality assurance of research at our faculty, will…

The Netherlands has DigiD, Portugal ‘de Cartão de Cidadão’, and Ireland MyGovID. Europe now wants one uniform digital identity card - the same for all Member States. For the Dutch government, the European successor to DigiD is a prestige project. State Secretary Van Huffelen wants to roll out an app…

In exactly 450 days’ time, on 8 February 2025, it is the university’s 450th anniversary. We are obviously going to celebrate this with our students, staff and friends. Do you have any ideas for this celebration?

Two research projects with researchers from Leiden University have been awarded a Dutch Research Council (NWO) Open Competition Domain Science-M programme grant. These grants fund curiosity-driven, fundamental research in the Science domain.

Education

In March, Dutch universities will take staggered strike action against the planned cuts. The strike will begin in Leiden on Monday 10 March. The university supports the strike action but is not going to close that day. Below we inform you how the strike will affect our university, students and staff…

She develops algorithms that outperform leading optimization techniques and can be applied in many fields. For this work, Niki van Stein and her team have won the GECCO Humies Award. ‘With our method, we can create and refine algorithms for a wide range of applications—algorithms that are better than…