Dear friends of the institute,

Many students who graduated during the pandemic were unable to celebrate their graduation in style. To make up for this, they were given the chance to sign their name in the Sweat Room on Friday 26 May.

Professor Susanna Lindberg has been appointed Scientific Director of the Institute for Philosophy with effect from 1 February. In her new role, she aims to foster connections among people. ‘I want my colleagues to feel good.’

After the KHMW Brouwer Thesis Prize for History, Vicente Fischer de Miranda Rodrigues has also won the Cornelis Thiele Prize of the Dutch Society for Religious Studies.

The Leiden University College team behind the Learning Mindset project has been nominated for the Dutch Higher Education Award, an award for innovative teaching in higher education. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science announced this on 15 March.

Floris Keehnen has been awarded the Volkskrant thesis prize 2012 for his MA thesis entitled:

Interpersonal communication plays a vital role for the prediction of health behaviours and health campaign effects. That's the way Social and Organisational Psychologist Hanneke Hendriks put it in her dissertation. Hendriks has been awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Award of the International Communication…

Although Islamic State has largely been beaten, for now the Jihad scene in the Netherlands is more than alive. That is what professor Edwin Bakker (terrorism and counterterrorism) recently said in an interview in the Algemeen Dagblad.

Annually, approximately 60.000 people in the Netherlands undergo radiation therapy for cancer. Coen Rasch is dedicated to enhancing the precision of proton therapy.

Space travel has long since progressed from being just about rockets, travelling to the moon, and Russia and America. The Netherlands has its own Space Agency and one of its important tasks is collecting and making available increasingly advanced satellite data.

Long evenings and closed university buildings make a perfect combination for listening to podcasts. Over the past six months, staff, students and alumni of the Faculty of Humanities have once again produced some great work.

Meet the people behind Science for Sustainable Societies! As a small-scale and hands-on bachelor’s programme, our team plays a big role in shaping your learning experience. In this section, you will find monthly interviews with the people who make this programme happen: our teachers, researchers, and…

In 1933, Leiden held a large international student conference. It was supposed to be a celebration of unity that would bring together the French, British and Germans. But when the Nazis showed their true colours, Rector Magnificus decided to intervene...

On 15 May 2025, a roundtable '80 Years of Peace in Europe?' was convened with students and staff at Leiden University to reflect on the anniversary of the end of World War II.

What influence do children’s upbringing and education have on their world view? This is the question Professor Judi Mesman is trying to answer. For her research and public outreach activities, she has just been awarded the prestigious Stevin Prize, the highest award in the Netherlands for a researcher…

Jan Zaanen, Professor in Theoretical Physics of condensed material, has been awarded a Spinoza prize. His pioneering ideas about the collective behaviour of quantum particles and high temperature superconductivity have often given him the reputation of being something of a rebel.

In his leaving interview, Martijn Ridderbos doesn’t have to think long when asked what he is most proud of. ‘Bringing people together; creating things together. Reducing the gap between researchers and the staff who support them because the latter are essential. We’ve achieved that and the seeds have…

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

As University historian, Pieter Slaman researches the University’s past, but he’s equally interested in its present. ‘It’s useful to be familiar with issues from the past. Not to be rooted in the past because some developments from history are things you definitely don’t want to repeat.’

The University buildings are partially reopening to students. And first-years will be able to discover real-life Leiden or The Hague during the introduction weeks this summer. Vice-Rector Hester Bijl describes what will be possible once more at the ‘one-and-a-half-metre university’. ‘We want to provide…

In his lectures Aris Politopoulos combines archaeology with video games. He is one of the three nominees for the 2020 LUS Teaching Prize. 'A good teacher is always open to feedback from students.'

This February Metje Postma will stop teaching and retire. But she is not done with the discipline yet: she will finish her PhD and there are still five films on the shelf that she plans to complete.

With cultural anthropology alumnus Jeroen Windmeijer, Leiden has added another writer to the fold. Following the success of his religious-historical thrillers, he has been able to call himself a full-time writer since 1 January 2019. ‘Not a true story but still true.’

It’s the middle of the academic year, but most of the University buildings are closed – something that hasn’t happened since the Second World War. Fortunately, after a week of intensive preparations, the teaching has moved online. How is the Central Crisis Team steering the University through the corona…

On 8 March, International Women’s Day, equal opportunities for women worldwide, empowerment, and gender equality take centre stage. This day has been celebrated in the Netherlands since 1912, usually centring around a specific theme. This year’s theme: solidarity, the power for change.

We started this year as we ended it in 2021: in a lockdown. But the world continues to open up. We are occasionally allowed to go into the office and students are able to return to Campus. Continue reading to find out what the rest of the year has been like.

Peter Paul van Benthem is not only head of the ENT department at the LUMC but also chair of the Federation of Medical Specialists. ‘The value is in the mix.’

Archaeologists from Leiden University find what is clearly an earth wall and ditch structure in the woods near Ermelo. They suspect it may be the remains of a Roman military camp, but as yet have no conclusive evidence. Will they be able to solve the puzzle?

On the 26th of February, 2018, it was exactly 25 years ago that the coins of ‘Verzameling Mr. B. Kolff’ were handed over to the Leiden Papyrological Institute.

Mixtec researcher and cultural activist Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez (Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University) has been awarded a Medal of Merit during the World Conference of Indigenous Woman in Lima, Peru.

We are currently experiencing a network disruption with Odido, which is affecting our mobile phone accessibility. As a result, you may not be able to reach us via the mobile network. Good to know: Calling over WiFi appears to be working. If possible, we recommend using WiFi calling to get in touch…

A small project grant from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung foundation has been awarded to Dr. Andrea Waters-Rist, a co-applicant on a project entitled

As part of the GTGC Lunch Seminars, Chris Wensink and Midas van Dijk presented their book 'Regionalizing Eurasia'. The COVID-19 pandemic restricted travel and placed free trade under scrutiny. Then, the war in Ukraine triggered unprecedented economic sanctions and severing of trade ties. By contrast,…

Gruni has been invited to Wageningen University on 15 March 2016 to speak on trade issues. What does the historical context from which TTIP emerged tell us about the present negotiations and the direction this trade agreement is taking? How does the TTIP relate to the broader context of global economic…

Starting from September, the four Dutch mathematics clusters DIAMANT, NDNS, GQT and STAR will each be given 1 ME from NWO Exact Sciences, to be spent within a period of two years.

A global outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused issues today with our video conferencing software and video management platform. This resulted in: For the video conferencing software: Problems with joining meetings and group chats. For the video management platform: Delays in transcription and…

Leiden Professor Marc Koper will be carrying out research on the chemical process underlying tin coating in order to optimise the quality of tin coatings. He has been awarded a subsidy of 285,000 euros from the STW Technology Foundation and Tata Steel.

Hybrid Symposium: Medieval miniatures from Byvanck to the RKD. 18 March 2025, Den Haag.

Vegetarian cafés/ Vegetarische cafés

Speed skating coach and human movement scientist Jac Orie has been capturing all details about the performance of 'his' skaters for fifteen years. Thanks to data scientist Arno Knobbe, who calculates the collected data in new ways, Orie can train his team even smarter in the run-up to the Olympic Winter…

The Scientific Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) has commissioned the Institute of Immigration Law to evaluate the Modern Migration Policy Act. The purpose of this law was to develop a modern, selective and innovative admission policy for legal migration, which is welcoming for economically desirable…

The New Jersey Chapter of the international Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

This weekend, the very sad news reached us that former employee Peter Hovenkamp died during an excursion in Malaysia. He was surprised by a flash flood in a cave in Gunung Mulu National Park.

On 1 July, Olga Zoutendijk will become a member of the Board of Governors of Leiden University. Zoutendijk (1961) was appointed by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, and will succeed Mirjam Sijmons. Sijmons is leaving after two periods of membership of the Board of Governors.

We are currently experiencing a network disruption with Odido, which is affecting our mobile phone accessibility. As a result, you may not be able to reach us via the mobile network. We understand this is inconvenient and are working with Odido to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. This page…

'Refugees often have to run for their lives. In Leiden, we run to raise money to support them and to contribute to their education.' With these words Leiden biology student and and former refugee from Congo Lesage Munyemana, calls out to sponsor teams for the Leiden Science Run.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research has awarded Leiden astronomer Giovanni Rosotti a Veni grant for research into very young exoplanets. This grant offers young researchers the possibility to develop their innovative ideas for a period of three or four years.

Camille Lefebvre has been awarded the John Peters Humphrey Student Fellowship in International Human Rights Law, by the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL).

During this Lunch Seminar of 20 November 2023, Ramesh Ganohariti presented his PhD research on contested sovereignty and politics of citizenship.

Students of the Research Master Classical, Medieval and Early Modern Studies (CMEMS) of the University of Groningen kindly invite you to the annual CMEMS conference. This year we will explore the processes that structure physical and symbolic borders and boundaries in different contexts and histories.…