The programme for the conference "His verbis exprime luctum: Supports, style et usages de la poésie funéraire (IXe-XIIe siècles)" has been published. The conference takes place in Poitiers and Louvain from 26-29 November.

The project has been done in the Quantum Matter Optics group under the supervision of Prof. dr. Tjerk Oosterkamp and Dr. L. Bossoni. The title of the presentation is:

The project has been done in the QMO group under the supervision of Dr. Michiel de Dood.The title of the presentation is: ''Counting photons with a superconducting single photon detector.

The project has been done in the Cosine group under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Martin van Exter and MSc Marta Brusasca.The title of the presentation is: ''Calibration of the condifood DemoDevice.

Hermen Jan Hupkes has been awarded a Rubicon grant by NWO.

The bachelor program Religious Studies has, besides also Linguistics and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, been awarded by the 'Keuzevakkengids Universiteiten 2019' with the predicate top program.

We are currently experiencing a technical issue with the HRM system, which is temporarily unavailable. We are working hard to resolve this issue and will come with a fix as soon as possible.

Currently, there is an outage that makes it impossible to login into some (educational) systems.

Dr M.R. Hogerheijde (1971) has been named professor by special appointment of Instrumental Astronomy at the University of Amsterdam (UvA)’s Faculty of Science. The chair was designated on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Physics, Medicine and Surgery.

The project has been done in the Quantum Optics group under the supervision of Dr. Jan Willem Dalhuisen. The title of the presentation is: ''Hopfions in curved spacetime.

Important update: the Dutch courses have been cancelled for the upcoming round of September-December 2020, in line with Leiden University regulations. There will not be an online replacement course. We will reassess the situation again for the next round, in January 2021.

Ronald Cramer (CWI/Leiden) has been awarded a VICI-grant by the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO) for his research on the mathematical fundaments of secure computation.

We received the sad news that Janet van der Meulen passed away on November 29. She was an expert on French and Dutch literature in the medieval Low Countries. An in memoriam (in Dutch) has been published on the website of Neerlandistiek.

The project has been done in the QMO group under the supervision of Dr. Michiel de Dood.The title of the presentation is: ''Superconducting transitions of MoSi nanowires around the critical current.

The Index of Middle English Prose, of which twenty-three volumes have been published since 1984, now has an online presence at imep.lib.cam.ac.uk. Thanks to the kind co-operation of Cambridge University Library and of the publishers, Boydell & Brewer, the indexes to all the volumes are now available…

The project has been done under the supervision of Dr. Diego Garlaschelli and Dr. Frank Takes. The title of the presentation is: ''Complex Network Analysis of Darknet Black Market Forum Structure.

While we are working hard to prepare an exciting and coronaproof course program for 2020-2021, it has been decided to postpone the Medieval Studies Day, that would normally take place in the fall of 2020, until the fall of 2021.

Scott Waitukaitus has been nominated by LION to be Discoverer of the Year 2017. Cast your vote now!

The project has been done in the Quantum Matter Optics group under the supervision of Dr. Wolfgang Löffler and Prof.dr. Carlo Beenakker. The title of the presentation is:

The project has been done in the Theoretical Nanophysics group under the supervision of Prof.dr. Carlo Beenakker. The title of the presentation is: ''Quantum pumping signatures of parafermionic zero-modes.

The project has been done in the Dirk Bouwmeester Lab under the supervision of Dr. Wolfgang Loeffler, Dr. Michiel de Dood and Frank Buters. The title of the presentation is:“A membrane-in-the-middle device for optomechanics.

For many centuries, news about catastrophic events has been disseminated via media such as pamphlets, chronicles, poems, and prints. This conference welcomes contributions that engage with the cultural dimensions of disasters and reflect on representations of catastrophes in different media.

Farewell lunch Stijn Aerts On 25 May, we organised a farewell lunch with a sjoel competition for Stijn, who left the institute on 1 June. Dear Stijn, it has been a great pleasure working with you, and we will surely miss you. We wish you all the best for the future!

On Tuesday, 16 December 2025, a disruption occurred in the functionality of Mediasite. The supplier has been informed and is currently investigating the cause of the disruption.

The university website(s) are currently unavailable.

Due to a technical fault, the Leiden University staff website is currently unavailable.

There is an opening for a postdoc position at the University of Bern. The Swiss National Science Foundation has granted Prof. Dr Michael Stolz funding for four years for research on the library of the 15th century humanist Sigmund Gossembrot. The deadline for submission has been extended to 14 Novem…

Japanese was not always the language spoken in Japan. Researchers link the arrival of the language in Japan with the migration of farmers around 400 BC. Linguist Elisabeth de Boer has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant to carry out research on the further spread of the language in Japan.

Groupcard provided prepaid cards to Dutch municipalities for welfare recipients, informal carers and volunteers. Now it is bankrupt, the cards are worthless and consumers and municipalities have lost money. Associate Professor Jessie Pool is investigating whether vulnerable people need better protection…

This week the Turkish army invaded North East Syria. The Turkish invasion might well have had an unintended side effect: the escapement of thousands of Islamic State terrorists held in captivity. Experts on terrorism and politicians fear a resurrection of the terror group.

Professor Ignas Snellen has developed an online platform where exoplanet researchers can post videos about their work: exoplanet-talks.org. ‘For young researchers in particular it’s a way to bring their research to people’s attention.’

Specific fatty acid-sugar molecules allow leprosy bacteria, among others, to hide from our immune system. How exactly is not entirely clear. Hessel van Dijk, who received his PhD on 13 October, replicated the molecules, helping to solve a piece of the puzzle. Van Dijk's dissertation is titled: Synthesis…

Spying in the seventeenth century was a man’s job. That had been the prevailing impression, until the Veni research by Nadine Akkerman from Leiden University...

Juan Masullo J., Assistant Professor at Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science, has been named a 2025 Harry Frank Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar. His research with Nicholas Barnes on public security policy preferences in Rio de Janeiro's favelas has been recognized for its innovative approach…

A flake of limestone (ostracon) inscribed with an ancient Egyptian word list of the fifteenth century BC turns out to be the world’s oldest known abecedary. The words have been arranged according to their initial sounds, and the order followed here is one that is still known today. This discovery has…

The journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society – Biological Sciences published its theme issue ‘Conflict across taxa’ on 4 April, which was edited by Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology Carsten de Dreu. Together with researchers from other disciplines he provides more insight…

The ongoing conflict in Kashmir is often seen as a political issue between India and Pakistan. Idrees Kanth, who has written a dissertation on the subject, believes that the people of Kashmir are the primary contenders in the conflict and should be allowed their right to decide their own political fate.…

The Dutch research school IPA has awarded former PhD student Sung-Shik Jongmans with the IPA Dissertation Award 2016. In March of that year, Jongmans received his doctorate degree with the rare distinction ‘cum laude’, describing a new method for parallel programming. ‘I aim to simplify programming…

It is time for the international community to put a stop to war crimes – especially against medical personnel, argued international chair of Doctors Without Borders Joanne Liu in her Cleveringa lecture.

Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has won the NWO Team Science Award after conducting research regarding the authenticity of several “Hugo de Groot’s” bookchests for the Dutch TV series Historisch Bewijs. The team consisted of researchers from the University of Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum and…

The 289 students who recently moved into the tower on Kolffpad at the Leiden Bio Science Park are sitting pretty. A self-contained unit in the middle of the campus yet surrounded by green, with a launderette, games room and study area on the ground floor, and, coming soon, a branch of Coffee Star.

His article on ‘the War on Drugs’ in Colombia and the Philippines has been in the top five most downloaded articles of Oxford University Press for some time. Now, Assistant Professor Santino Regilme is to receive a NIAS grant to map out the global war on drugs.

Mavlyuda Yusupova will be Central Asia Visiting Professor in November 2018. She will deliver two guest lectures for Leiden MA and PhD students.

On 19th August, we received the sad news that our dear colleague, Dr Johanna Stöger, has passed on. Hanna died, surrounded by family, at home in Southern Germany. She had battled her illness for some time, and for a while it looked as if treatment would be successful. Alas, Hanna’s recovery was to…

On 1st July Austria will assume the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. An appropriate occasion to invite former president of Austria Heinz Fischer to deliver the eighth Europa Lecture on Friday 8th June. During the lecture Mr Fischer shared his views on the history of his country…

Four young Leiden researchers have been awarded a Rubicon grant to conduct research abroad. They will be working in Germany, the UK and the US studying such topics as the origin of galaxies and risk behaviour in young people.

If it is up to university lecturer Evelien Walhout, in a year's time we will know exactly what people from Haarlem and Zwolle died of a century ago. Together with colleagues from other universities, she started the doodsoorzaken.nl platform, where causes of death are recorded. ‘Somewhere around the…

If you had something important to write down in ancient times, you would usually write in Greek in the eastern Mediterranean. University lecturer Joanne Stolk has been awarded an ERC grant to explore the kinds of spelling mistakes that were made in these scripts. And, more importantly, what improvements…

We catched up with Annette Righolt, Honours College coordinator at FGGA, about a grant, a new course and the new year.