Who inspired you to see a subject in a whole new light? The Teacher of the Year Award celebrates those who not only share knowledge but also spark curiosity, connect with students, and bring research to life. Meet the finalists for 2025!

Each year, the Faculty of Science celebrates exceptional teaching with its annual award. Here you’ll find how the tradition began, how the winner is chosen, and where to explore the lecturers who have earned the title in previous years.

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,…

best phd theses of the faculty of science Leiden - physics, chemistry, computer science, biopharmaceutical sciences, biology, industrial ecology, environmental sciences, astronomy, mathematics. thesis

Improving healthcare with our scientific discoveries: that is the goal of pharmaceutical research at Leiden University. And there’s a lot involved in that. Our research starts with the discovery of the effect achieved by a particular substance, and sometimes continues all the way through to the development…

During the Faculty of Science New Year's reception, Daniël Rozen was named Discoverer of the year 2015. Nienke van der Marel and Koen van der Maaden both won the prize for the best dissertation and Jeroen van Smeden was named Best Teacher of 2015.

At the New Year’s reception of the Faculty of Science on 6 January, it was announced that Annelien Zweemer, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, has been awarded the ‘Discoverer of the Year 2014’ prize. Matteo Brogi, Leiden Observatory, wrote the best dissertation in 2014 and Dennis Claessen, Institute…

Looking for a master's degree to follow up your bachelor's degree? With a choice of over 80 master's programmes and 200 specialisations, you will always find a master's degree that suits your area of ​​interest at Leiden University. During your master's porgramme, you will be educated to become a committed…

Looking for a master's degree to follow up your bachelor's degree? With a choice of over 80 master's programmes and 200 specialisations, you will always find a master's degree that suits your area of ​​interest at Leiden University. During your master's porgramme, you will be educated to become a committed…

This engagingly written textbook provides a unique 'hands-on' introduction to sociolinguistics, which equips readers with the tools to start their own sociolinguistic research project.

Who will be our Discoverer of the year 2017? Which one of these brilliant researchers deserves this prize for their efforts according to you? As of now, you can cast your vote.

Students of the Faculty of Science have chosen Dennis Claessen (IBL) as the best teacher of last year.

Scott Waitukaitus has been nominated by LION to be Discoverer of the Year 2017. Cast your vote now!

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Former PhD student Annelien Zweemer was granted the C.J. Kok Award 2014, also known as “Discoverer of the Year”. A festive ceremony took place at the Faculty’s New Year’s reception on January 6, 2015.

Looking for a fun, interesting or challenging study programme? With a choice of over 50 bachelor's programmes, you will always find a programme at Leiden University that suits your area of ​​interest. During your studies, you will be educated to become a committed professional who contributes to the…

Looking for a fun, interesting or challenging study programme? With a choice of over 50 bachelor's programmes, you will always find a programme at Leiden University that suits your area of ​​interest. During your studies, you will be educated to become a committed professional who contributes to the…

Environmental scientist Alexander van Oudenhoven has been chosen as Discoverer of the year of the Faculty of Science. Vice Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl announced this during the faculty’s New Year’s Reception on 10 January. Biologist Changsheng Wu won the prize for best dissertation of 2016. Computer…

Auke-Florian Hiemstra is the Leidsch Dagblad Person of the Year 2022.

What went on in 2016 at our University? What are we proud of? You can view the answers in our new photo brochure. Our new brochure 'About us' is available as well, with the most recent facts and figures. Both brochures are available in English.

‘One lecturer stood out in particular,’ said Dirk van Vugt, Chair of the Leiden University Student Platform (LUS), at the opening of the academic year. ‘Despite the hurdles of remote teaching, she managed to inspire her students with the aid of knowledge clips, challenges and topical lectures about…

Leiden academics Remco Breuker and Auke-Florian Hiemstra stand to win the title of Person of the Year.

Former PhD student Gerard van Westen was granted the C.J. Kok Award also known as “Discoverer of the Year”. A festive ceremony took place at the Faculty’s New Year’s reception on January 7, 2014.

Paul Adriaanse, together with eight other candidates, has been nominated in the administration law category for the title ‘Magna Charta Lawyer of the year’. The public will vote to decide the winner

The editors of Biophysical Journal have selected a publication from Daniela Kraft’s group as the Paper of the Year 2017. The award recognizes an outstanding contribution by a young investigator.

Earlier this year, the public voted environmental scientist Paul Behrens Discoverer of the Year 2018. Behrens is an interdisciplinary scientist who wants to understand our impact on the planet. ‘Unfortunately, we are not doing enough. Huge changes are underway and we’re running out of time to avoid…

A previously unknown document about Rembrandt’s student years in Leiden has been found in the archive of Leiden University. The document, which is being kept at the University Library, proves that Rembrandt studied at Leiden University for longer than has always been assumed.

Koos Biesmeijer, Professor of Natural Capital, and Claire van Megen, an Educational and Child Studies student, are in with a chance of winning Leiden’s Person of the Year title.

In this thesis it is posed that the central object of preference discovery is a co-creative process in which the Other can be represented by a machine. It explores efficient methods to enhance introverted intuition using extraverted intuition's communication lines.

Today, 189 out of 193 officially recognised nation-states have a written constitution, and 75% of these have been ratified since 1975. How did this worldwide diffusion of constitutions come about?

The molecule calix[4]pyrrole, synthesised in the group of associate professor Sander Wezenberg at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, has been voted ‘Molecule of the Year’ by the readers of C2W Mens & Molecule. Wezenberg received the award from editor Daniël Linzel.

Irene Battisti is the discoverer of the year 2019. The physicist won the C.J. Kok Public Award for her research into microscopy and superconductors.

Research report January 2020. Supported by the lectorate ‘Music, Education and Society’, research group ‘Making in Music’, Royal Conservatoire The Hague

The exhibition Leiden celebrates – 450 years of parades at Museum De Lakenhal shows how parades and society have changed through the centuries. Alumnus and historian Danielle van Goethem worked on the exhibition. She gives a preview.

Every person on earth can read another person’s mind. Not in the way psychics or witches do, but by putting themselves in the shoes of others and considering how they perceive the world. This kind of empathy greatly facilitates communication and interaction. Max van Duijn studies this phenomenon to…

Leiden was ‘European City of Science’ in 2022. Leiden University looks back on a fantastic year with activities, lectures and workshops full of science and curiosity.

Last January, the education assessors of the different study associations chose Fouzia Lghoul-Oulad Saïd of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) as teacher of the year. Her passion for teaching extends beyond her classes, according to the students who nominated her: ‘ She is always ready…

Astronomers from the Leiden Observatory and from the University of Rochester (in the US) have discovered that the planetary ring system that covered the very young sun-like star J1407 is actually of enormous proportions. In fact, it’s much larger and heavier than the ring system surrounding Saturn.…

An international team of astronomers, including Leiden's Maciej Bilicki, has discovered an enormous supercluster of galaxies. The supercluster had previously been overlooked because it was obscured by our own Milky Way. The researchers are publishing their findings in the Monthly Notices of the Royal…

In the summer there are three big introduction weeks for new students – EL CID, HOP and OWL – but students also begin their studies in Leiden or The Hague halfway through the year too. International students, for instance, who are coming for on an exchange for a few months. They got to know the University…

Harvesting rice from the same field, without planting new rice plants? A discovery may bring this scenario closer. Leiden scientists have discovered a gene that allows annual plants to grow after flowering, instead of dying. Publication on 13 April in Nature Plants.

Monday June 18th the department of European Prehistory of the Faculty of Archaeology started a five-year research (2018-2022) of two newly discovered barrow groups: Baarlo-De Bong and Venlo-Zaarderheiken (northern Limburg).

Imagine that you need to travel, but you don’t have a car and you’re dead broke. What do you do? Hitchhiking, of course! Leiden biologists found that certain bacteria use this very same tactic: their spores hop on motile bacteria and use them as a taxi, ensuring they reach the right environment to f…

Leiden University researchers have discovered by chance a note from 1783 in Papiamento. They are working on a linguistic study on confiscated Dutch letters. The ‘Letters as loot’ project is headed by Professor Marijke van der Wal.

Spycraft, by professor Nadine Akkerman and Pete Langman has been selected by History Today and The Economist as one of 2024’s best books

A new LUMC study has changed our understanding of how cells work. Researchers have discovered that the CFAP20 protein acts as a kind of ‘traffic controller’ on DNA. Without this protein, chaos ensues, potentially causing cancer. Their findings have been published in the prestigious journal Nature.