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

Do you want to promote the interests of students or staff? If you do, put yourself forward as a candidate for the University Council or the Faculty Council between 5 and 8 April. Two council members, PhD candidate Elisabeth Kerr and Law student Mante Kaaks, tell us about their experiences.

Patients with skin diseases such as eczema and psoriasis, sometimes spend a lifetime searching for the right medication. To help these patients faster and better, scientists across the country are joining forces. The Next Generation ImmunoDermatology (NGID) project, with LACDR professor Robert Rissmann…

Level Up is a non-profit project led by a multi-disciplinary team of doctoral researchers in the framework of the Europaeum Network was founded by the University of Oxford University. Sophie Veriter explains the importance of Level Up, the development of the ‘Level Up Toolkit’, and why this project…

How do you deal with bullying? How can you motivate young people? At the NeurolabNL symposium a multidisciplinary research team launched an interactive book for teachers and youth workers. This digital book offers the latest insights and plenty of useful tips and advice. Children’s Ombudsman Margrite…

In May 2022 Lennart Kruijer succesfully defended his PhD, which he wrote as a member of the VICI Project ‘Innovating Objects’, led by prof. Miguel John Versluys. So succesfully, in fact, that he was awarded the Cum Laude honors. Just a short time later he was awarded a grant and a fellowship to further…

This year, an NWO PhD in the Humanities grant went to Mink van IJzendoorn, enabling him to investigate the disappearance of amphorae. ‘We take means of packaging and shipment for granted, but they are deeply ingrained in our daily lives; they are crucial.’

Marco van Eijk is the new Educational Director of the Bachelor's Life Science and Technology (LST). Since 1 September he has been responsible for ensuring the quality of the programme. ‘LST is a unique programme and everyone has to keep working hard for that. That is my main task.’

White girls receive significantly more positive comments from their teachers in their primary school reports than white boys and children from migrant backgrounds. PhD candidate Antoinette Kroes researched subtle biases in different contexts and saw how harmful these can be.

Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life.

The Faculty of Science launched the new Academic Year on 21 September with a special We Are Science talk show. Dean Paul Wouters starred in his role as talk show host and received a wide variety of guests.

The academic year 2021-2022 is already past the halfway mark. That also means that the current members of the Faculty Council have been at work for more than half a year. Time for an update with staff members Evelien Wolthuis and Kiki Zanolie.

On 3 July, students of the Leiden Leadership Programme received their certificates in the Marekerk church in Leiden. During the festive closing ceremony, it became clear that humanity and leadership go hand in hand. ‘As a leader, you have to listen, observe and acknowledge problems.’

Oberon Janszen, alumnus Bestuurskunde, ging na zijn studie als stagiair bij de Inspectie der Rijksfinanciën aan de slag

With its FestivOWL theme, Orientation Week Leiden (OWL) promises to be one big festival for new international students in Leiden.

After working full-time for twenty-four years, Wendy Tonks decided to enrol in the executive master's in Cyber Security. She now proudly reflects on her time in the programme after receiving a ten for her thesis and graduating summa cum laude. ‘I could not believe it when I got my grade.’

Aisha Hassan came to the Netherlands when she was two months old. Her mother had fled Somalia and made a new home here. Aisha doesn't remember much about that time, but her mother’s stories about Somalia ignited a lifelong interest in developing countries. ‘Her stories have always fascinated me.’

Willemijn de Best’s career path led her to the media sector. Besides the more obvious legal professions, a degree in law actually offers many other possibilities: film and television production with celebrities as clients, for example.

In a guest lecture, Senior Vice President at Volvo Penta, Peter Hertinge, shared his lessons on leadership with master honours students of the Leiden Leadership Programme. 'If you set expectations, people will behave accordingly.'

Her office is a bit tucked away in a corner of the building, but her department is always buzzing with activity. Since May 2024, Renate Rijbroek has been our new Head of Facility Management. There was no slow start: ‘We are working hard towards the official opening in September.’

Imagine we could do what green plants can do: photosynthesis. Then we could satisfy our enormous energy needs with deep-green hydrogen and climate-neutral biodiesel. Scientists have been working on this for decades. Chemist Chengyu Liu will receive his doctorate on 8 June for yet another step that brings…

Limburg lawyer Roger Cox has caused a legal revolution. With high-profile cases against the Dutch state and Shell oil company, he transformed the law into a tool to enforce climate policy. Leidraad alumni magazine spoke to him about a life defined by radical choices for a better world.

A job thanks to COVID—something not many people can claim. But PhD candidate Vera Arntzen can. Over the past four years, she has mapped two crucial characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Thanks to her research, experts can now make well-informed decisions on matters like quarantine duration, which…

Hanneke Hulst explaines how she is trying to bridge the gap between science and health care. ‘For a neuroscientist to actually contribute to solutions for patients, you have to work across disciplines.’

Henk Hoekstra and Alessandra Silvestri work on the astronomy and theoretical physics in the Euclid mission. These Dutch researchers are part of the mission.

The university is launching a campaign to focus extra attention on our smoke-free university locations. The University is using aptly named cigarette barrels to try to show clearly just how many cigarette filters are being saved from the environment. How harmful are these cigarette filters to the e…

Julie Külsen is the student member on the Faculty Board, called the assessor, this academic year at Leiden Law School. Who is Julie and what does the assessor actually do? How can she help students? Let’s meet our new assessor!

The clever young people at the National ThinkTank who tackle an urgent societal problem each year include two Leiden alumni this autumn: Jiao Harmsen and Jort van Dalen. They will spend at least four months getting to grips with the topic of ‘education’.

Exceptional collaboration between physicians is needed to better understand and treat autoimmune diseases that cause inflammation in various organ systems.

Tensions are rising between Russia and the West. Can an invasion of Ukraine and an international war be avoided? Political scientist and Russia expert Hans Oversloot warns of the consequences if the West chooses a collision course. ‘Offer Russia a dignified exit strategy.’

Doing a PhD can be challenging. Moving to a foreign country can be challenging too. PhD candidate Ilya Kokorin, who was born in a small town in Siberia, faced both, while at the same time having to overcome a number of additional challenges and build a future post-PhD.

How do molecules originate and evolve in space? And how does that ultimately determine the chemical composition of planets and their atmospheres? The Dutch Astrochemistry Network (DANIII) receives 1.6 million euros from NWO to find out. A large group of Leiden astronomers and chemists is contributing:…

Video conferencing from your sitting room and algorithms on social media that know your interests: new technology is an increasingly integral part of our lives. At the same time there is a growing call to protect our privacy, and this is causing friction, at the University too. In part because of the…

Human cells are protecting their proteins from unfolding and aggregating. That's what biophysicist Alireza Mashaghi and his team discovered after seven years of in-depth research into the folding mechanisms of proteins. With an unprecedented approach, the team was able to study the folding of a single…

How do you study the growth of microorganisms, the spread of epidemic diseases or the healing of wounds, without actually performing experiments? Daoyi Wang, PhD candidate at the Mathematical Institute, worked on a specific mathematical model that can describe the growth of microorganisms and many other…

Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life.

When hobby divers revisited a nearly 400-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Texel, they discovered more than 1,000 objects in wooden boxes. Eight years later, postdoc Janet Dickinson used recovered books to compile a profile of the mysterious owner.

With their thesis research, Master’s students from Leiden, Rotterdam and Delft help solve real-world problems in The Hague Southwest. That is the aim of the Thesis Project. We spoke to two students who are participating in the project.

On 15 April Susanne Deen will start as Diversity & Inclusion Coordinator for Leiden Law School and the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. The aim of this new position is to contribute to establishing an inclusive community where all students and staff feel valued and respected, and can achieve…

In the documentary ‘Pretend Student’, former students talk about why they let everyone believe they were still studying. How can you make sure you don’t end up in such an impossible situation? Four questions for Leiden Student Dean, Romke Biagioni, who worked on the documentary.

From 22 January on, the video conferencing app Zoom will be available for students and teachers at Leiden University. The University is responding to calls by staff and students, and has now acquired the programme.

‘A Muslim and a Jew in the house of God.’ This is how historian Nadia Bouras introduced her recent conversation with colleague Sara Polak in Leiden’s Hooglandse Kerk. They discussed the rising tensions since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. ‘Dare to ask each other questions.’

As an international employee at Leiden University, it can be hard to settle into the workplace, the city, or generally, the Netherlands. The Leiden International Centre can help international employees land comfortably and make living abroad just a little bit easier. Jenny Willcock, coordinator at the…

Since the beginning of September, it is a fact: our faculty has a new strategic plan. The plan outlines what we will collectively commit to in the coming years. Is that important? For sure, say our directors Suzanne van der Pluijm (Operations) and Bart de Smit (Education). ‘The purpose of a strategic…

Jorik ter Veer studied Political Science in Leiden. How does he look back on his student days?

Petr Steindl works on quantum dots in microcavities for his PhD research. He manipulates single-photons to create complex structures of light. Applications could include quantum communication and gates for quantum computers.

Donororganen zijn er nooit genoeg. De organen die wel beschikbaar zijn, moeten vliegensvlug getransplanteerd worden. De geneeskunde zet daarom volop in op het langer goedhouden van organen. Marlon de Haan (24) onderzoekt hoe je nieren buiten het lichaam in leven kunt houden.

Behind the scenes people are working hard on the vision and strategy plan of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences: a manifest of our priorities and ‘a pamphlet for change,’ according to Dean Paul Wouters and Board Secretary Jordi Kerkum. The faculty-wide conversation about our collective future…

Is there a place for machine translation engines like Google Translate within the Faculty of Humanities? Associate professor Lettie Dorst’s new educational website aims to help students and teachers find an answer to this question. ‘The use of AI tools, such as Bing and ChatGPT, shouldn’t be seen as…

De onderzoeksteams zijn opgezet, samenwerkingen zijn gestart, projecten afgetrapt, de eerste startsubsidies zijn binnen en de websites zijn in de lucht. Het stimuleringsprogramma Citizenship, Migration and Global Transformations, dat bestaat uit de twee pijlers Social Citizenship and Migration en Global…