Jasper Knoester started on 1 January as our new dean. How is he finding it, what kinds of things is he doing and what does his day look like? In every newsletter Jasper gives us a peek into his life as dean.

In this article we share the experiences of a student who used Siggie for Students. The online coaching platform for students that is paid for students at FGGA. Find out if Siggie can be of help to you too.

Throughout the year, master's student Berber Kommerij is busy analysing medieval and early modern books and paintings. Every summer, however, she leaves for the Norwegian fjords to conduct sea kayaking tours. 'Watersports are my great love.'

By 2050, we can obtain 40 per cent of our demand for scarce earth metals from old smartphones, batteries, and wind turbines. This is crucial because otherwise, we may not have enough to accomplish the energy transition. An international team of researchers from China, the UK, and Leiden's Tomer Fishman…

The rising energy prices cannot have escaped anyone’s notice. They have dominated the news in recent months. As a university, we too face a big challenge as the prices continue to rise. We will all have to do our bit in the coming months, also in view of the climate crisis that we want to help resol…

Almost 3,000 students from the Faculty of Humanities completed the National Student Survey (NSE) in the spring of 2022. With a response rate of 38%, the Faculty scored slightly above the national average.

As one of the first environmental scientists ever, Arnold Tukker received the honorary doctorate at Linköping University on Saturday 12 November. This Swedish university awarded Tukker for his scientific work to establish a circular economy.

‘Health, happiness and productivity. The focus is mainly on the latter, but to create a sustainable career you need all three.’ These were the words of Professor of Sustainable Careers Jos Akkermans at the opening of the Career Days. Students can visit these university and faculty days for workshops,…

Quantum technologies are in demand worldwide, but until now Leiden students could not specialise in them. The new master’s program QIST (Quantum Information Science and Technology) is going to change that. Researcher and professor Jordi Tura i Brugués: ‘We need to train the next generation of quantum…

What actually goes into the development of a massive open online course, a MOOC? University lecturer Tijmen Pronk developed the course 'Introduction to Comparative Linguistics of Indo-European Languages' independently. He talks about his motivation and experiences.

Jan Melissen, associate professor at ISGA and editor-in-chief of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, and his team have been awarded 10,000 euros from the 'Valued' fund. This pilot fund, implemented by the KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) aims to increase the interaction between science…

Michaël Peyrot has been appointed professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics with retroactive effect from 1 January. He is looking forward to passing on his love for the subject to a new generation of students.

Union membership is important, especially in turbulent times. Unions negotiate on your behalf with your employer about your terms and conditions of employment. And if that’s not reason enough, you’ll get a membership discount until the end of October. So join now, says senior policy adviser and FNV…

Every year, the first Monday in November is Emergency Response Day: the opportunity to recognise the importance of emergency response officers. At Leiden University over 400 enthusiastic and dedicated emergency response officers make sure our students and staff are safe, says emergency response training…

This year on June 8-12, the Annual Convention of the Austrian and Central European Centres was organised in Leiden. At this convention, directors and (PhD) students from all over the world come together to meet, have presentations by the students on their topics of expertise, and to get the know the…

The first results of the National Student Survey (NSE) show that Leiden students are still satisfied with their degree programmes. On average they are slightly more satisfied than in 2021. Satisfaction with their lecturers and study guidance has also increased compared with 2021.

Each year a staggering 18 billion chickens, turkeys, pigs, sheep, goats, and cows either die or are killed without making it onto someone's plate. Environmental scientists Juliane Klaura, Laura Scherer, and Gerard Breeman were the first to calculate this number on a global scale. 'Reducing these numbers…

From 12 to 16 April the joint Career Services of the faculties present on Campus The Hague organised the Online Campus The Hague Career Event. Around 600 students signed up! Every day of the week, they could join presentations, webinars and workshops presented by alumni, professionals and Career advisors,…

Our university recently joined the European university alliance Una Europa. Staff from the 11 affiliated universities met in Leiden last week to discuss our collaboration.

After years of hard work, Urban Studies graduates were presented with their diplomas. How do they look back on their studies? And what can we expect from them in the future?

‘Violence as a Population Health Problem’ is one of 33 interdisciplinary projects that have been launched thanks to a Kiem grant. The project team will analyse a large patient database to identify links between violence and other health problems. ‘Violence can also be an expression of other factors,’…

A major grant for research into machine learning algorithms for quantum computers. With this ERC Consolidator grant, Vedran Dunjko and his colleagues hope to discover which real-world problems a quantum computer can solve faster than a normal one.

For hundreds of years, children in Ancient Egypt learned to read using The Satire of the Trades, a text in which a father gives advice to his son through descriptions of different professions. PhD candidate Judith Jurjens investigated how this worked in practice.

Astronomers and surgeons from Leiden are collaborating with industry to develop an optical instrument that delivers faster, more accurate imaging of tumour tissue and abnormal blood flow during surgery.

Many will add them to their shopping list without a second thought, but what if you don't have enough money to buy period products each month? The university has recently started providing packs of affordable sanitary pads and tampons in the SchoolSupply vending machines. ‘It's just like providing toilet…

Doing your taxes, Netflixing or driving a car: more and more daily activities are supported by computer applications. It is challenging and expensive to test software thoroughly, leading to errors in most applications. PhD candidate Benjamin Lion made a mathematical framework to deal with this problem.…

Lecture hall A0.06 in the Schouwburgstraat in The Hague was packed with parents, friends and other loved ones on Friday, 27 September. No fewer than 61 graduates received their Urban Studies diploma there, the highest number in the four years since the programme started.

A Student Living Room, free period products and a wide variety of events. Over the past year, the Student Support Team at Leiden Law School has taken measures to turn the faculty into a safe, accessible social space for all students. They’ve been reflecting on the past year.

Nearly all students have faced many challenges this academic year. Students Nasreen Javanjoo (Religious Studies) and Marcos Cordova (Literary Studies) talk about their experiences of studying in the time of coronavirus.

For four years, Vicky Beckers examined thin slices of wood under a microscope, mapping the anatomy of two plant families. Her research helps identify different wood species, benefiting both the timber trade and archaeology.

Martin van Hecke and Lennard Kwakernaak (Leiden university and AMOLF) develop a mechanical metamterial that can count to ten in their research.

Today marks the start of RoRI’s Phase 2. With our international consortium of partners, we’re excited to launch another five years of generating, synthesising and translating ideas and evidence into practical solutions to improve research.

The SENSYN project has found a solution to few public datasets for criminological research: synthetic datasets. Marieke Liem talks about this unique innovation

Understanding the proces of electrochemical reactions is essential to improve the technology for the energy transition. Fuel cell cars, for example use hydrogen produced from the electrolysis of water. Mariana Monteiro did fundamental research on the process and won two prizes with her thesis.

Education

On Friday 29 August, the Wijnhaven was filled with a special mix of first-year students just beginning their academic journey, and students who, after 1,089 days of intensive study, were awarded their Bachelor’s degree in Security Studies. In two festive sessions, a total of 223 students received their…

During her master's thesis, Nashanty Brunken (24) worked in a team with five other women. With this female team, they discovered the largest molecule so far identified in a disc. 'I have learned so much and because we are all women, it is incredibly empowering. It's very cool to see how far we've come…

For many years, he was active in various management positions at the LION and even after his retirement he is still very involved. Professor Jan Aarts leads the Leiden hub of the Quantum Delta NL growth fund and is now temporarily responsible for national educational activities. In this way, he is helping…

Nanomaterials can pass much further along the food chain than was previously thought. The particles can change shape and size in each organism, enabling them to pass on to the next one in the chain. Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Sciences discovered this accidentally when using a novel…

‘Rudy van Vliet is always willing to go that extra mile to help us,’ is what students say about him. The lecturer in the Computer Science bachelor’s programme not only teaches his regular courses but also offers additional classes to prepare students for programming competitions. His dedication to students…

Generations of Leiden students and academics have done archaeological research into the early medieval history of Oegstgeest. This makes this old settlement one of the best-documented sites from that era. In a new book Leiden researchers take stock.

Leiden Mayor Peter Heijkoop visited the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences and the Faculty of Science on Monday,

On 17 June, primary school pupils in Leiden will get the chance to explore science in an interactive and engaging way. The exciting new show ‘Wetenschapswonders’ is the initiative of master’s students Boele Visser and Ilse Hordijk, from the Rino Foundation. ‘I’m happy to help build a bridge between…

For a long time, even many researchers thought that guide dogs were a relatively modern invention. An accidental encounter with archival material showed university lecturer Krista Milne that guide dogs helped their blind owners as far back as the Middle Ages. Milne now has received an NWO XS grant to…

Would you like to take a walk with a fellow student who you don’t know? That is the idea behind Walk & Talk. With this new initiative, International Studies aims to provide more opportunities for social contact.

In the coming academic year things will hopefully gradually return to normal, so that teaching can again take place as far as possible on campus. Even so, hybrid teaching is here to stay. We talk to Niels van de Ven, former lecturer at Leiden Law School and now Education Manager at the Centre for Innovation…

The right medicine in the right dosage for every patient, that is something medical science aspires. 'Personalised medicine' is the term for that. But it does require a lot of research with patient data and that can be hard to get due to privacy legislation. Researchers Laura Zwep and Coen van Hasselt…

Police investigations use wiretapped phone recordings as investigative material fairly regularly. But how do they know that the voice on the recording actually belongs to the suspect? PhD student Laura Smorenburg is trying to answer that question.

Henrike Vellinga recently joined the Institute for History as a PhD candidate, as part of Carolien Stolte's VIDI project 'Peace Palms. International Coalitions for Peace in the Era of Decolonization, 1918-1970'. The project runs alongside Carolien Stolte's ERC project 'Reconciling Peace: International…

Online dating is hard enough on its own, but these days you also need to know what terms like ‘zombieing’ and ‘prela’ mean. Alumni Milou Andree and Vivien Waszink wrote ‘Swipen voor een kwarrel, a book that discusses all the dating jargon, from the ‘scharrel’ to ‘pigbutchering’.