Het strategisch plan van de faculteit wiskunde en natuurwetenschappen (FWN) werd gepresenteerd tijdens de opening van het academisch jaar 2023-2024.

Fifteen hundred years ago, the north-west of what we now call China was a jumble of peoples. How did those Indians, Khotanese and Tocharians influence each other and each other's languages? Associate professor Michaël Peyrot has been awarded an ERC grant of almost two million euros to unravel this 'web…

Taking responsibility concerning colonial heritage and restitution is a pressing issue for countries and museums worldwide. On 23 and 24 May, a Leiden University interdisciplinary symposium will explore new perspectives as a basis for policies. Organising professors Carsten Stahn and Pieter ter Keurs…

A deliberate attack on a tangible element of a culture, such as a temple, is often also an attack on intangible elements: the religion or religious customs. Equally, the intangible can be attacked without the involvement of the tangible, for example the brutal curtailment of rights. How are these reflected…

Leiden astronomy Master's student Arend Moerman has received an A+ for his thesis research on the simulation of chaotic interactions of three black holes. The simulations, which he carried out together with his Leiden and Oxford colleagues, show that lighter black holes tend to slingshot each other…

Education

The new University Sports and Exam Centre is another step closer. Bigger sports and exam halls, plenty of room for meeting people, an open feel that integrates with the Campus Square and the sports fields, optimal acoustics and an uncompromisingly sustainable building with a green facade and solar panels.…

From 11 to 17 September, Leiden will be all about art and science. What can the combination of these two domains do for us? And how can cooperation between them be strengthened? Several public events and a brand new symposium for specialists should answer these questions.

Fossil Free against KLM on greenwashing, municipalities against Chemours on PFAS discharge, climate cases against Shell and ING Bank… There are many examples of recent civil lawsuits on sustainability. But does climate litigation in the civil courts actually have an effect?

Today marks the start of RoRI’s Phase 2. With our international consortium of partners, we’re excited to launch another five years of generating, synthesising and translating ideas and evidence into practical solutions to improve research.

You’re about to start your minor at Leiden University. Make sure you are well prepared and get your studies off to a good start.

For the past 2 years, Dr Letty ten Harkel has been jointly running an excavation project of a suspected Roman villa site on the Balearic island of Mallorca with colleagues Dr Antoni Puig Palerm and Ritchie Kolvers, MA. The project was recently awarded a LUF Chastelain-Nobach fund to explore the extend…

Sander van Kasteren (Professor of Molecular Immunology) makes the invisible visible. He will explain more in his inaugural lecture.

On the menu of the LLP Skills Café no beer and snacks, but communication skills as listening, resolving conflicts, and giving feedback. ‘Once you really learn to listen, you become a better leader and nicer friend.’

You’re about to start your minor at Leiden University. Make sure you are well prepared and get your studies off to a good start.

Recently, Dr Gül Aktürk Hauser took up the position as Assistant Professor at the department of Heritage and Society. Originally an architect, she got caught up in the study of historical vernacular buildings in northeastern Turkey. Now her focus lies on the impact of climate change on cultural heri…

Researcher Max van Duijn and PhD student Bram van Dijk apply language models to stories told by children to investigate empathy. For this research, they received the Best Paper Award at the Computational Natural Language Learning Conference in Singapore.

An international team of astronomers has discovered a large reservoir of hot gas in the cluster-in-formation around the Spiderweb Galaxy. Based partly on that hot gas, the astronomers predict that the cluster-in-formation will grow into one of the largest objects in the universe. A step closer to discovering…

About one and a half million people worldwide die each year from tuberculosis. For thirty years, therapy with antibiotics has been the same, while it takes far too long and can lead to resistant pathogens. Leiden researchers from four institutes are now joining forces to develop more effective and efficient…

Education

Starting 1 October 2022, Mirjam Sombroek-van Doorn has been appointed as Professor Law and Health.

Wopke Hoekstra, outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Campus The Hague on 6 July to talk to students about the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius.

As you may know, a draft profile for a broad BA programme in Languages and Cultures has been in development for some time. On 21 December 2021, the Faculty Board decided to end the design process of that broad bachelor’s degree programme. However, as the Faculty Board and partners in the discipline…

As a doctor, coming to a decision together with a patient: how do you do that in the best possible way? Researchers Geert Warnar and Roosmaryn Pilgram, who jointly teach a course within the MA in Dutch Studies, are entering into a virtual collaboration with the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa to find the…

Promovendus Dorine van Staalduinen deed onderzoek naar de implementatie van Waardegedreven Zorg en ontdekte dat structurele samenwerking nog uitdagend is.

PhD candidate Karen van den Akker has written a children’s book to get young girls excited about technology. The picture book ‘Met mama naar Mars’ tells the story of Luna, who wants to travel to Mars.

Abeer Abazeed, PhD-student at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, will defend her thesis on Wednesday april 21st. Four questions about her PhD-research ‘Is it One Nile? Civic engagement and hydropolitics in the Eastern Nile Basin’.

Planets existing in other solar systems contain invaluable information about the origin of planets and life. PhD candidate Yapeng Zhang has studied their atmospheres by looking at their smallest parts: isotopes. With her research she hopes to discover what makes our own solar system unique.

Could we stop cancer cells by cutting off their energy supply? That’s what Dione Blok, a bachelor’s student in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences, aimed to find out during her thesis research. She investigated a compound that affects the tumour cells’ energy metabolism. ‘Hopefully, these insights will provide…

Ever since its foundation, Leiden University has turned its gaze outwards to other cultures, languages and forms of academic practice. It is only natural, therefore, that we as a university have four institutes abroad: the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV-KNAW)…

Leiden University is going to offer two new Economics degree programmes at its campus in The Hague: the bachelor’s in Economics and Society and the master’s in Public Sector Economics. The NVAO has decided to award accreditation to both programmes, which will be taught in Dutch. The bachelor’s programme…

Mathematics can help predict thrombosis. Mathematician Mark Alber has developed models that even aid in suggesting treatments. In the Kloosterman lecture on 27 June, he will explain how this works.

Until now, systematic discussions of gender, race and law have received little attention from Dutch law faculties, especially at the undergraduate teaching level. At the same time, public calls for discussion of these issues increases rapidly.

Chemist Tobias Bauer discovered ways to improve drugs by encapsulating them. Packages with iron nanoparticles, for example, can stimulate immune cells. Bauer will receive his PhD on 9 June.

Imagine getting a notification on your mobile phone with your personal code for impending mental health problems or even depression: yellow, orange, or red. Science fiction? Not for scientist Eiko Fried. 'There is a real chance we can prevent some mental health problems before they occur.' Want to participate…

Our dear colleague and friend Kathy MacDonald passed away unexpectedly on August 9th, 2022, a few days after her 46th birthday. Her sudden passing came as a tremendous shock to her colleagues and friends at the Faculty of Archaeology and to colleagues and former students both in The Netherlands and…

Three Leiden students are in the running for the annual ECHO Award. This prize is for students from non-Western backgrounds who are actively engaged in society and promote diversity and inclusion. The three Leiden nominees are Gnimdou Yaovi Assih, Husna Jalal and Sohana Jethnani.

Amsterdam-based bicycle company VanMoof was declared bankrupt in court this week. The company had been struggling with financial problems for some time and recently closed its doors, causing great concern among customers. Several affected customers whose newly bought or repaired bikes were still being…

How do you engage students? Sander van Kasteren knows how to do that like no other. ‘He compares immune cells to Pokémon and doesn’t just give information; he tells stories,’ students say about their favourite lecturer, Sander van Kasteren. The Professor of Molecular Immunology passionately teaches…

Nienke van der Marel has been awarded the New Horizons Prize in physics for her pioneering research on planet formation. This prize is given to young, promising researchers in physics or mathematics. The astronomer and her colleagues found the first observational evidence for 'dust traps' in disks around…

The question of land property titles is a common source of conflict between indigenous communities and federal authorities all over the Americas. A new Panamanian law have led indigenous communities to reach out to archaeologist Dr Natalia Donner. A grant from the Centre for Indigenous American Studies…

Education, Organisation, Human resources

On 23 November 2022, the BUREN Thesis Prize on Insolvency Law was awarded for the fifth time. This year, two Leiden theses were nominated for this prize, written by Carlijn van der Hek and Raghav Mittal. Both nominees presented the results of their research, after which the jury announced that the first…

2021 saw many prizes awarded to staff and students of Leiden Law School. Grants for new research projects were also awarded and our staff were invited to particpate on committees or recognised in other ways too. An overview of this year’s achievements is given below.

During her master's thesis, Nashanty Brunken (24) worked in a team with five other women. With this female team, they discovered the largest molecule so far identified in a disc. 'I have learned so much and because we are all women, it is incredibly empowering. It's very cool to see how far we've come…

Since November 2022, Veronica Tamorri has been a new face at the Faculty of Archaeology. Originally from Rome, she joined the Faculty with a two-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie post-doctoral fellowship. Here she is studying human remains from early Egypt and Nubia (Sudan) using bioarchaeological methodologies.…

Leiden University College The Hague received the 'Top rated Programme' seal from the Keuzegids Universiteiten 2021 (Dutch University Guide). It is the eighth consecutive time the Liberal Arts & Sciences programme focusing on Global Challenges is awarded the honorary seal.

The SENSYN project has found a solution to few public datasets for criminological research: synthetic datasets. Marieke Liem talks about this unique innovation

Discover the unique Vital Interests course in the BSc Security Studies programme, featuring an inspiring session on climate diplomacy with Dutch UNFCCC negotiators.

The celebration of our up-and-coming science talent, that is the Psychology Science Day. Students stand proudly by their research posters and enrich the insights of fellow students, PhD candidates, postdocs and faculty with their explanations.