By carrying out fundamental research and providing excellent education, universities become a breeding ground for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Scientists, including our faculty colleague Dr. Mike Field, studying an exceptionally well-preserved woolly rhinoceros have revealed details of what Britain's environment was like 42,000 years ago. The beast's remains were discovered in Staffordshire in 2002, buried alongside other preserved organisms…

The Humanities Faculty Teaching Award has been won by Olja Karmanova. The Russian lecturer was presented with the award during the opening of the faculty year.

In this dissertation, the types of context Dutch speakers need to interpret the poly-interpretable word ergens ‘somewhere/anywhere’ are studied.

Descriptions of different languages help us understand what speakers of different languages share worldwide. At the same time, having descriptions of languages available can also change local education and open our eyes to cultural and linguistic diversity. But what if a language has not yet been (fully)…

Prof. Dr. Willem Adelaar has been elected as Honorary member of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA)

When alumnus Jonathan Katzman started his master's programme in Russian and Eurasian Studies, he didn't foresee how useful those skills would be in the near future. Now, he manages a refugee centre for Ukrainians who have fled their war-torn country.

Whilst resisting abhorrent Russian aggression, Ukraine has made a clear choice for a future in Europe. With an association agreement already in place, and Ukraine being a candidate for EU membership, Ukrainian lawyers need to be trained in EU law and Ukrainian Law Schools need to develop the capacity…

The master’s specialisation Computer Science and Education at Leiden University prepares students to teach the subject of biology to secondary school students. The programme comprises a one-year Computer Science component, followed by an education component in the second year.

The 10th edition of the World Congress of African Linguists (WOCAL), hosted by Leiden University, will be held online from 7 – 12 June. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) researchers give us an insight into how important and special this event actually is.

The Master’s specialisation Educational Science offers students cutting-edge insights into how individuals develop and learn and how education can be optimized to include every learner.

The Astronomy and Data Science master’s specialisation at Leiden University combines advanced Astronomy courses with relevant courses from the Computer Science programme at Leiden University.

Every year, the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) organises the Science Day. The goal is to highlight the newest research at LION, to socialise, and to welcome first year master students and new PhD candidates to our institute.

The group is involved in training in areas of diagnostic skills, treatment/prevention/intervention, neuropsychological assessment, behavioral observations, clinical interviewing, knowledge of intellectual disability, autism, ADHD, psychosis and aggression.

If you wish to know exactly what is going on in a healthy or sick human body, and at various levels such as molecule, cell, tissue, organ, larger systems and a person as a whole? Do you wish to learn how to do research which contributes to diagnoses, treatment and prevention of diseases? Then the bachelor…

The main question of this research project concerns the extent to which light verbs in West Germanic languages participate in processes of language change.

This dissertation provides a formal description of the relationship between diatopic/diachronic micro-variation and phonologization through analysis of the phonetic/phonological properties of unstressed vowel reduction and vowel insertion in two Northern Italian dialects.

Quantum Information Science & Technology (QIST) encompasses the understanding, design, construction and investigation of quantum information processing systems, such as quantum computers, quantum communication networks, and quantum sensors.

What did we do over the past year? Well, we played quantum games, helped develop an instrument for the Extremely Large Telescope and started a new bachelor's programme. Oh, yeah, and we officially opened our brand new Gorlaeus Building! Warm up the fingers and get ready to click and scroll through…

Are you interested in combining your master programme with the Science Communication and Society specialisation? Learn more and watch the introduction video.

The 10th edition of the World Congress of African Linguists (WOCAL), hosted by Leiden University, will be held online from 7 – 12 June. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) researchers give us an insight into how important and special this event actually is.

The SAPPAO project aims to optimise the accuracy and reliability of predicting scheduled flight times. The full name of the project is 'A Systems Approach towards Data Mining and Prediction in Airlines Operations'.

In January 2020, Dr Min Jung Cho and Dr Annie Trevenen-Jones of LUC The Hague applied for the LUF - SVM (Stichting Verpakking en Milieu/ Foundation for Packaging and the Environment) grant. In June 2020 they were awarded a grant amounting to the sum of €75,000.

Words originally intended to indicate space, such as ‘out’, are also regularly used to indicate cause and effect. Why does this happen? And how does it work in other languages? PhD candidate Camil Staps decided to find out.

Interested in Area Studies? Then Leiden is the place to be! Join our Online Area Studies Week from 2-5 June to find out more. From Africa to Brasil and from Korea to Russia, Leiden covers all areas and fields, both in language, literature, history, politics and socio-economics. Join our live Q&As!

As a student of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences, you have a strong interest in drug development: from the onset of diseases to the effects of individual drugs in the body. Is that true for you? Then, Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences might be the right study programme for you!

University lecturer Alex Reuneker has won the Frans van Eemeren Prize for his paper 'Assessing classification reliability of conditionals in discourse'.

The first photo of a black hole and measuring anxiety in the brain... From 13 until 22 May we're serving a free slice of science with your pizza.

Get to know us through our online and in-person events for prospective students!

Graduation Ceremony

Professor Jenny Doetjes has received an NWO grant to research the cross-linguistic properties of quantity expressions and our brain's influence on language.

This dissertation provides a comprehensive overview of the grammar of Bantawa, a Kiranti (Rai) language spoken in Eastern Nepal.

FluidKnowledge will investigate the past, present and future of evaluating ocean science. Regarding the past, it will ask how research priorities in ocean science evolved until now. Which lines of inquiry became hot topics, and which died out? Who became global players, who ended up in the periphery?…

Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS)

This page provides information to support your application for the Master's programme of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The group Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences has expertise in individual differences in child development, in particular the development of psychopathology, ranging from mild to severe neurodevelopmental disorders.

Our Talents and Discoveries was a yearly publication by the Faculty of Science of Leiden University, published since 2003. You can read all the editions online. Note that the original publication was in Dutch; the original title translates as 'What we are proud of'. The last booklet came out in 2022,…

In the Life Science & Technology (LST) degree programme you study the functioning and applications of the living cell: the building block of all plants, humans, animals and micro-organisms. This can be your contribution to a clean and healthy world.

The Leiden Summer School in Language and Linguistics is visited every year by many scholars worldwide. Four of the 120 participants of the 7th Summer School in 2012, share their view of Leiden.

Set up in 1991, this unique project aims to identify and describe the common lexical heritage of the most important Indo-European languages and language branches. The project has thus far resulted in twelve volumes published as The Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series (Brill, Leiden).

This programme video is presented in Dutch

This programme video is presented in Dutch

LUCIS works with Science ON AIR to put its researchers in the spotlight. For that purpose, several online videos of LUCIS members have been produced.

Mari Nakamura defended her thesis on 14 March 2017

Graduates of International Studies are attractive candidates for international employers in a wide variety of fields – think NGOs, multinationals, humanitarian or governmental agencies. Your deep region-specific knowledge and language, academic and practical skills prepare you for a Master, as well…

Research truly comes to life when it contributes meaningfully to society. By sharing our findings, advising policymakers or contributing to community projects – we can make a real impact. Scroll down and discover how Science and society can mutually benefit from each other.

From the largest numbers to the smallest molecules and from the oldest galaxies up to the latest algorithms, explore our standout discoveries and most inspiring collaborations from the past year!