Supervisor: S.F. Portegies Zwart Co-Supervisor: A.G.A. Brown

Even though more than 4000 extra-solar planets are known today, only a small fraction of these has been captured in an image. To better understand the planet formation mechanisms in solar-like environments we started the Young Suns Exoplanet Survey (YSES).

Physicist Christopher Berg Smiet, who recently obtained his PhD in Leiden, has been awarded an NWO Rubicon. The grant allows him to conduct postdoctoral research for two years at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in the United States.

The Leiden Observatory is starting a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money to construct a new telescope.

The LLRC has collaborated on developing the communicative tasks for the Leiden Learner Corpus (LLC).

A team of astronomers led by Dutch scientists have directly imaged a giant planet orbiting at a large distance around a sun-like star. Why this planet is so massive, and how it got to be there, is still a mystery. The researchers will publish their findings in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Staring into the clouds hoping for a glimpse of the sun, cheering in encouragement, video recordings: there was no shortage of things to do at the Leiden Observatory. More than 600 visitors witnessed the last, almost complete solar eclipse of the decade..

The focus of this thesis is how stars like our Sun and planets like Jupiter, Saturn, and Earth are formed.

Knowledge and culture subproject 4:

Africa has a population of 1.5 billion. In 30 years’ time, this will be 2.5 billion. The continent’s impact on the global economy, but also on the environment, will therefore increase drastically. Researchers from the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL) have been aware for decades of the crucial role…

Asim Zubcevic defended his thesis on 11 November 2015

ALMA has observed stars like the Sun at a very early stage in their formation and found traces of methyl isocyanate - a chemical building block of life. This is the first ever detection of this prebiotic molecule towards solar-type protostars, the sort from which our Solar System evolved. The discovery…

Leiden University has partnerships in the local region, in the Netherlands, in Europe and with countries on almost all the world's continents. Students and researchers benefit from these partnerships, but society is also a beneficiary, says Rector Carel Stolker.

The solar system was formed approximately 4.56 billion years ago. Despite the numerous theories that have been developed over the years, the formation and evolution of the solar system still remain unclear.

Have you made up your mind and decided to pursue the BSc Security Stuides at Leiden University? First, check the admission requirements.

Thousands of first-year students and hundreds of mentors kicked off the EL CID on Monday morning. This year for the first time, the introduction week of Leiden University and Leiden University of Applied Sciences was also open for students of Regional Training Centre mboRijnland and the Leiden Instrument…

Please have a look at the long version of our promo video

Experimental research

First set up in 2015, the Language Learner Corpus (LLC) project collected language data of over 150 language students. We have now launched new communicative tasks to collect longitudinal data of language learners at Leiden University.

Across cultures, parents help their children master the social and linguistic codes needed in adult life. Recent research on language socialization found important cross-cultural differences, pointing out the need for more diversity for a full understanding of this process. Deaf communities form…

On the 16th of May, Qing Yang successfully defended a doctoral thesis. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Qing on this achievement!

Leiden University has participated in an international study carried out by the CARMENES consortium, which has discovered two small, terrestrial planets around Teegarden’s Star. The planets have masses similar to Earth and their temperatures could be mild enough to sustain liquid water on their surf…

From Great-Britain to the United States and from Australia to South Africa: people around the whole world speak and write English. In Leiden you will broaden your knowledge of the English language and the rich Literature and culture of the global English world on academic level.

Working for a top faculty? Discover the vacancies at the Faculty of Science and apply immediately.

The Old Observatory has a rich history. On this page you will find a short version of the history that took place in the observatory.

For Humans of Psychology, students and staff will be put into the spotlight. At our institute prizes are won, exiting research is conducted, knowledge is harnessed, public meeting are organised and open science is highlighted. Take a look behind the scenes.

Do you want to apply for the bachelor’s programme Urban Studies at Leiden University? First, check the admission requirements.

Here you find the admission requirements to apply for the international bachelor’s programme in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.

Do you want to apply for the bachelor’s programme Archaeology at Leiden University? First, check the admission requirements.

Is the International Bachelor in Psychology the programme of your choice?

Do you want to apply for the bachelor’s programme African Studies at Leiden University? First, check the admission requirements.

Whether you are eligible for admission to the IRO programme depends on your previous education and your command of the English language. The detailed entry requirements are listed below, separately for students with a diploma obtained in the Dutch school system and those with a non-Dutch diploma obtained…

Do you want to apply for the bachelor’s programme International Studies at Leiden University? First, check the admission requirements.

Here you find the admission requirements to apply for the bachelor’s programme in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence.

Do you want to apply for the bachelor’s programme South and Southeast Asian Studies at Leiden University? First, check the admission requirements.

Do you want to apply for the bachelor’s programme Arts, Media and Society at Leiden University? First, check the admission requirements.

The master’s programme Statistics & Data Science provides students with a thorough introduction to the general philosophy and methodology of statistical modelling and data analysis. The programme has two specialisations: Data Science and Statistical Science.