Linguist Willem Adelaar was appointed to Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion on October 1st. On that very same day he celebrated his 43-year connection to Leiden University. Adelaar has an impressive track record in the field of indigenous, and often endangered, Amerindian languages.

We have all been deeply affected by the events that took place in Rotterdam on Thursday evening. Our colleagues at Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University have lost a valued colleague and have been involved in a very serious incident, which will undoubtedly leave deep scars. The witnesses to this…

Aske Plaat is the scientific director of LIACS, the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Systems. He is also an ambassador for Leiden University's LGBT+ Network. His enthusiasm shines through when he explains why.

An online course to teach our international students their first words in Dutch, American presidents in Leiden and how Neanderthals made the very first glue: view a selection of our most read English news in the past year.

In every parliamentary system, people vote on political parties during an election instead of a president. It is very unlikely that one party gets the majority of the parliament. Therefore, a government is formed by negotiations between parties. In Belgium, this process is far more complicated than…

In Green Bank, Virginia are some giant radio telescopes which astronomers use to study objects deep in space. Because these telescopes are built to capture very faint redio signals, the area around the observatory is officially a 'radio-quiet' zone, without WiFi, radio or Cell signal. Photographers…

The 16-year-old girl was staying in a closed juvenile care institution where, among other things, she was administered 'pain stimuli'. The charges are the first of their kind, says Mariëlle Bruning, Professor of Children and the Law, to Dutch newspaper the Volkskrant.

This month Johan Christensen, assistant professor at the Institute of Public Administration, published his new book: ‘The Power of Economists within the State’. The book explores four countries, Denmark, Ireland, Norway and New Zealand and analyses why these similarly sized and wealthy countries have…

A new plant species was named after Paul Kessler, prefect of the Leiden Hortus botanicus. Kessler discovered the small tree, which is related to the kiwifruit, himself.

Conflicts are good! According to Eefje Cuppen, Professor Governance of Sustainability at Leiden University's Institute of Public Administration. But what is the status of the energy transition? That is happening at a very slow pace here the Netherlands.

On 20 & 21 April 2017 international researchers in the field of law and society and criminology presented their work in Brussels and shared ideas on discretion and decision-making.

Starting March 2015, the Honours Class ‘Miscarriages of justice and fact-finding in (Dutch) criminal procedure’ has given me, a student of Education and Child Studies, the opportunity to submerge myself into this area of law, together with twelve other enthusiastic students.

Leiden University College The Hague again receives the 'Top rated Programme' seal from the Keuzegids Universiteiten 2019 (Dutch University Guide).

The final meeting which took place on Wednesday 6 September marked the end of the third cohort of master students’ time participating in the The Hague Southwest Thesis Workshop. During this last meeting, master students presented their research results to residents and stakeholders from The Hague So…

Today, February 6th, the new course Wicked Problems Lab (in full: Wicked Problems Lab: working with governance, leadership and social innovation) started. This new course for third-year Honours students is part of the Honours Track

As of July 1, Professor of Bio-organic Synthesis Hermen Overkleeft will be appointed as the Scientific Director of the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC). He will succeed Jaap Brouwer, who has been managing the institute for the past twelve years. Overkleeft has been appointed for a period of four…

On 19 June, an Iranian man was stabbed by another Iranian man at the train station in the Dutch city of Leeuwarden. He had been placed on an Iranian execution list because of his political past in Iran. Was this attack the work of the Iranian secret service?

Sarah is the latest addition to our team...

Joanne van der Leun has been reappointed by the Executive Board of Leiden University as Dean of Leiden Law School. Van der Leun will begin her second term (2019-2022) on 1 September 2019.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Professor International Relations and Diplomatic Practice at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University spoke to Belgian (Flemish) news magazine Knack about the position of Europe in relation to the United States and China. ‘Europe has to be careful to avoid…

The JASON Institute, together with the Jean Monet Centre of Excellence, Leiden University Campus The Hague, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Jonge Atlantici, is very pleased to invite you to the Symposium on European Defence- and Security Policy.

How many of our laws in the Netherlands are actually determined by the European Union? In many areas, the influence of the EU has increased. But 80 per cent – a figure referred to in 1989 by then European Commission President Jacques Delors – is a very wide estimate. Research from around 15 years ago…

Last Monday August 14th, Leiden University College The Hague welcomed 206 students to its new Class of 2020! Coming from all the different corners of the world, the students will live and study at the LUC campus. After being welcomed by the LUC staff on Tuesday morning, the new LUC students spent the…

Ludo Waltman, professor of Quantitative Science Studies at Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), has been awarded the Derek de Solla Price Medal.

Halima Bouras leaves for the City University of New York with her Fulbright scholarship. 'I am very happy with the Fulbright grant and excited to continue my research project in New York next semester', reacts Bouras. The aim of her PhD research is to promote educational opportunities and educational…

Last Thursday, the last ILS Lunch Seminar of this academic year took place. In this successful and well-visited edition, Prof. Pablo Mendes de Leon and Albert van Marwijk Kooy gave two very interesting and engaging presentations.

'There are far too few networking events for young scholars, even though they are eager to attend them;' states Judi Mesman, Dean of Leiden University College (LUC). On Wednesday 7 March, Judi Mesman organised the 'Interdisciplinary Networking Event for Young Scholars', a networking event specifically…

To say that IT projects in the public sector do not always run very smoothly is an understatement. There are more than enough examples, from the IT project for student loans in the '80s, to problems with IT at the tax authorities, the judicial offices and the police in more recent times.

LIACS scholars Thomas Bäck and Hao Wang will be the new Editors-in-Chief of the Evolutionary Computation Journal from November 1. Published by MIT Press since its foundation in 1993, the journal stands as a keystone in the field, providing a global platform for researchers exploring the workings of…

Arco Timmermans, Professor by special appointment Public Affairs at the Institute Public Administration discussed the proposed fine that is likely to prevent Unilever from leaving the Netherlands.

Rawi Ramautar will be the new Programme Director of the bachelor of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences starting September 1. The appointment is for four years. Ramautar succeeds Erik Danen, who has held the position since 2019.

The master’s programme 'Jeugdrecht' (Child Law) at Leiden Law School has been awarded the gold medal by EW Beste Studies. It is the only degree programme at Leiden University to have earned this top award. Professor Mariëlle Bruning says, 'it’s the best compliment you could ever get in your career'.

As of 1 September Miranda van Eck will be the new Scientific Director of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research. She succeeds Hubertus Irth, who led the institute since 2016. Van Eck has been appointed for a period of four years.

With a barbecue at the Scheveningen beach the Leiden Science Buddy Programme was kicked off on 7 August. In this first round, 64 new international students are paired to current students. These buddies will do their very best to make the new students feel right at home in Leiden.

Sensational, is how Leiden Egyptologist Olaf Kaper described the discovery of two new chambers in the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun. He hopes that a second set of scans will confirm their presence unequivocally.

A mediation meeting was held today between the University Council and the Executive Board about the appointment procedure for the Vice-Rector of Organisational Development, Erwin Muller. We have managed to resolve the dispute.

Today it was made public that Hendrik Lenstra has been appointed by the Dutch Royal Academy for Sciences (KNAW) as 'Akademiehoogleraar' (Academy Professor). The Mathematical Institute congratulates him, and is very honored to have him as part of its staff.

We are very proud to announce that our LUC Science Lab is finished and ready to be used by LUC students.

The Jordan Times has interviewed Peter Akkermans about the damage done to the Early Islamic archaeological site of Khirbet Al Umari, Jordan.

Two new university lecturers for ACPA

We welcome Paul Sharp as The Hague Journal of Diplomacy's first Honorary Editor.

This project focuses on a striking parallelism between two macro-groups of languages: southern Italian dialects and the so-called split-ergative languages, like Basque, Georgian, Dyirbal, Hindi/Urdu.

PhD Research Projects:

Studying languages enables you to unearth a lot of valuable information about humans: it reveals our history and explains cultural differences and it even illustrates the process of learning new information. The University is sharing its knowledge of and passion for languages in various new ways, including…

If we need funding for a project, equipment or research at the university, we automatically think of the Dutch Research Council or other grant providers. But more and more researchers are managing to connect with people who care about the university.

This year, two Leiden master students will be awarded a KNMP Student Award. Both Wisse van Os and Jip Linthorst will receive 1,000 euros from the Royal Dutch Pharmacists Association (KNMP) as a reward for their excellent study results, motivation and commitment.

Physicist Milan Allan will build an instrument that will bring superconductivity research further. He has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant of 2 million euros over the next five years. With his PairNoise programme he aims to detect paired electrons as they occur just above the temperature at which…

On Wednesday 4 September, Queen Máxima opened the renovated tropical greenhouse complex of the Leiden Hortus Botanicus, an event that attracted wide public interest. Thanks to this renovation, the greenhouses are even better equipped for scientific research.

On Thursday 26 January 2017 Anouk Bosma will defend her doctoral thesis ‘Targeting recidivism: An evaluation study into the functioning and effectiveness of a prison-based treatment program’. The defence will start at 15.00 hrs, at the Academy Building of Leiden University, Rapenburg 73. Supervisor…