CML grants three Stans Awards each year, known as the best PhD paper, best student thesis and best outreach from the past year. The CML staff nominated students and colleagues and this year’s jury Helias Udo De Haes and Gjalt Huppes made the final decision.

How can business strategies help us solve social problems? This was researched by students of the Master Honours Class 'Social Innovation in Action' over the past twenty weeks. During the final seminar of the class they presented their creative enterprises to tackle child poverty in Leiden. ‘It’s not…

On 9 November 2018, Bachelor’s students from all disciplines presented their research during the Student Research Conference (SRC). This year, the Student Research Conference took place at Leiden University College (LUC) The Hague.

At the beginning of the corona pandemic, our Faculty appointed student mentors to guide first-year and international students. What drives these mentors, and what is it like to be back at the Faculty again? Mireia and Marten tell us all about it.

The refugee crisis and terror threats call for better European cooperation, was the message from Piet Hein Donner in his Cleveringa lecture on 26 November in the Academy Building. ‘Opting for an open and pluriform community takes courage.’

On Tuesday 30 September 2025, PhD candidate Jonathan Collins will defend his dissertation A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Far-Right Alt-Tech Social Media Movement in Leiden’s Academy Building. His work examines the communication dynamics of far-right communities on alternative…

In donut-shaped buildings, particle accelerators take super-detailed X-ray images. Yet those images are not good enough to learn how to drive on hydrogen for example. Mathematics PhD student Allard Hendriksen has developed an algorithm that improves the images without having to learn from data from…

How do surgeons avoid causing nerve damage or leaving cancerous cells behind? An interdisciplinary research group at the LUMC hopes to improve operations and make them less invasive with the aid imaging techniques. They are working with medical companies to make these techniques widely available.

The Queens of the Nile exhibition at the National Museum of Antiquities finally affords the wives of the pharoahs the attention they deserve. Thanks to guest curator Olaf Kaper, students and PhD candidates gained valuable experience in museum curating.

From painful joints to intense fatigue: a third of rheumatism patients suffer serious effects from this chronic condition and rely long-term on medication. Leiden psychologists are to receive a subsidy from the Netherlands Arthritis Foundation to investigate whether placebo techniques can help patients…

The Panama Papers and Paradise Papers provide evidence that companies and individuals are evading tax on a large scale. Worldwide tax agreements can put a stop to this. But for the time being a treaty that will address the problem at its root is not in sight, in the opinion of legal expert Dirk Broekhuijsen.…

For some time blackbirds have been settling in towns as well as in woods. As a result, town blackbirds have now begun to develop differently from their counterparts in forests. These are the findings of the PhD research carried out by behavioural biologist Erwin Ripmeester who defends his dissertation…

All acute care staff at Leiden University Medical Center have received their first and sometimes even their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine. But how long will you be protected after vaccination and what does the genetic material of the virus do in the vaccine? Our virologists Ann Vossen and Leo…

On 15 May, the ambassadors of 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries were shown the highlights of research at Leiden University Faculty of Science. Furthermore, Prince Carlos de Bourbon de Parme awarded prizes to two young academics who conduct research in Latin America.

The rule of law is crumbling in the Netherlands, lawyer Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You warned in her Cleveringa Lecture.

Kitesurfing, colonising the Binnenhof and most important of all - meeting fellow students. More then 700 students of Leiden University in The Hague get to know the city and one another during the HOPweek.

People often say you should ‘do something that makes you happy’. Alumnus Benjamin Wegman certainly took that advice to heart. After graduating with a degree in tax law, he switched to brewing beer at a local brewery in Leiden.

Niels Broekman did an internship at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, where he worked on, among other things, biodiversity advocacy. After his internship, he decided to go in a different direction: ‘An internship can be very enlightening in helping you figure out where your interests…

The stadtholder’s court in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands has long been underestimated. Real courts and the associated court culture were to be found elsewhere in Europe. PhD candidate Quinten Somsen is trying to reverse this image. ‘The stadtholder’s court was actually very lively.’

For his dissertation, Joost Akkermans searched for areas of improvement for delicate fetal laser surgery with Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTS). This syndrome occurs in the Netherlands 60 to 70 times a year among single-egg twins sharing one placenta. Treatment is possible, but not without risk. Inaugural…

From simulations of galaxies to analyses of MRI scans: scientific research needs more and more computing power. Leiden University is planning to set up a completely new facility for high-performance computing. The green light was given officially on 20 June.

Organised in three separate sessions throughout the day, and broadcast live online to guests and families who could not join, over 200 students received their Bachelor’s Diploma of International Studies on 3 September 2021 at the graduation ceremony in the historic Pieterskerk in Leiden.

Speakers from all over the world offered their interesting views on the relationship between humans and animals during the LUCAS Graduate Conference, based around the central theme ‘Animals: Theory, Practice, and Representation’.

People who are often stressed can feel calmer by making certain adjustments to their breathing. Possibly this also positively affects concentration and attention. Psychologist Roderik Gerritsen studied the effects of breathing differently for the first time, and explains them. Gerritsen receives his…

By 2050, 70 per cent of the world's population will live in cities. This has major consequences for the lives of city-dwellers and for the environment. Uncontrolled urbanisation calls for an interdisciplinary approach. On 4 September, the first group of students started the new English-language Bachelor's…

How does a farmer decide if his cow is a prize winner? An anthropologist studying these farmers should not only look at the farmers themselves, but should in particular learn how they see the world. This is what Cristina Grasseni, the new Professor of Anthropology contends. Inaugural address on 30 O…

Because they could really have used it during their own time as students. For many alumni, that’s their reason for signing up for the mentors network at Leiden University. Around 2,200 alumni are ready and waiting to offer students help and answer questions about study, internships or careers. The Faculty…

Almost a thousand students started HOPweek in The Hague on Monday morning. During this introduction week students get to know the city, the university and each other.

A month ago it was Marc Baggelaar, and now Hans Kistemaker too has obtained his PhD cum laude at the Leiden Institute for Chemistry (LIC). ‘He has made ground-breaking contributions to the world of protein modification,’ says PhD supervisor Gijs van der Marel. Kistemaker obtained his PhD on 11 May…

Counterterrorism specialists often have to contend with difficult ethical dilemmas. There is currently a lack of any adequate infrastructure within intelligence agencies for discussing these dilemmas, Michael Kowalski writes in his dissertation. PhD defence on 12 March.

What do you do when you’re suddenly given access to a whole lot of data but don’t know how to organise and analyse it? Maritime historians in the Faculty of Humanities joined forces with vocational college (MBO) students to build a database. ‘We’re so compatible with each other.’

When Sjoerd van Trigt, a student of International Studies, is not in the lecture hall, you can find him at Rowing Club Asopos de Vliet. He trains there seven times a week. Soon, he will be leaving for a six-month stay in Japan.

A galaxy is already incredibly large, but it can get even bigger. Astronomer Reinout van Weeren investigates clusters of galaxies, one of the largest structures in the universe. For his research into the origins and evolution of these clusters, he obtained an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros.…

With his dance routine and YouTube clips, he even manages to make grammar fun. His infectious enthusiasm and innovative teaching methods have won Thijs Porck, a lecturer in Old and Middle English, a nomination for the LUS Teaching Prize.

From games to scavenger hunts: museums already do all sorts of things for children. But how do children really look at art? Do paintings affect them more if they receive information that is specially tailored to young visitors? Join psychologist Francesco Walker at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and see…

Between 12 to 14 December 2018, the University of Groningen hosted JURIX 2018 – The 31st International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems. A number of us at the Company Law department (Iris Wuisman, Thy Pham, Morshed Mannan and Sjoerd Yntema) attended the conference to learn about…

Alireza Mashaghi from the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) will use state-of-the-art technology to investigate proteins that play a role in muscular dystrophy. His goal is to provide new insights for designing novel therapeutic strategies in the future. To accomplish this, Mashaghi receives…

Gerard van Westen and his group, together with pharmaceutical company Galapagos, start on developing software that invents new effective molecules. They will receive an NWO LIFT grant of 280,000 euros, of which 63,000 euros will come from Galapagos. The company will also bring its expertise in biology,…

To celebrate its 5th anniversary as an independent non-profit think tank, the Conference on European Restructuring and Insolvency Law (CERIL) held its first lustrum with a conference on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 April 2023. The conference discussed the European Commission’s long-expected legislative…

Sjoerd Keulen holds the new special chair in Public Audit, Policy Evaluation and Accountability.

Luca Giomi has the first results of his ERC consolidator grant. He discovered that epithelial cells move collectively but in different ways, depending on the scale you look at. It is hexatic at small scales, and becomes nematic at larger scales: it is a multiscale order. This collective movement of…

On November 21, theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena gives the Ehrenfest Colloquium. Maldacena is known worldwide as the inventor of AdS/CFT correspondence, which might be key to a theory of quantum gravity. Maldacena is winner of the prestigious Dirac Prize and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental…

Digitisation and poor reception of refugees are putting children’s rights at risk. This warning comes from Professor Ton Liefaard. His department is organising a summer school on this issue.

The presence and participation of interest groups in policymaking processes has become a crucial component of Western democracies. These groups link society and policymakers and influence public policy choices. Their function however, is often taken for granted and not very well researched. Adrià Albareda…

Pharmacologist Liesbeth de Lange has won the Lewis B. Sheiner Lecturer Award from the International Society of Pharmacometrics (ISoP). As Professor of Predictive Pharmacology she is working, among other things, on a mathematical model that can predict drug concentrations in the brain. On the occasion…

How can we view societal challenges from a different perspective? At the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), Robert Zwijnenberg, Emeritus Professor of Art and Science Interactions, will call for more collaboration between artists and scientists.

Aron is a second-year student of Korean Studies. He was in Seoul as part of the stay-abroad portion of the program when Leiden University took measures due to the coronavirus. He and his fellow students decided to let the last flight back to the Netherlands pass to stay in South Korea.

Aafje de Roest turned her hobby into her job. She went from a teenager who enjoyed listening to hip hop music to a PhD candidate who focuses on how Dutch hip hop music shapes the cultural identity of young people in the Netherlands.

Fungi living in vanilla plants play a role in the development of the taste and smell of vanilla, according to Shahnoo Khoyratty of the Institute of Biology Leiden. PhD defence on 27 October.

It is a warm day. The sun is shining brightly while biologist Marco Roos makes his way through the bushes towards a peculiar little plant. Insects buzz, birds chirp. In the background rises the LUMC: at the Bio Science Park in Leiden, people and nature come together in a special way.