What do you do if you want to reach the widest possible consensus on a decision, ensuring it represents all the feelings and ideas within your team? The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) tried the Deep Democracy method. It proved successful: ‘Everyone had a say without us getting stuck…

Ana Cristina Arcos is PhD candidate at Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) working in zebrafish imaging and deep learning algorithms with Dr. Fons Verbeek in collaboration with Institute Biology Leiden (IBL). Experience in healthcare, life sciences and software development. Master's…

Zihao started as a PhD researcher at the Industrial Ecology department of CML in October 2021.

I am a PhD candidate at Leiden University in the Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), supervised by Hazel Doughty.

Jay te Beest is a PhD candidate at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS). He researches the application of deep learning in electron microscopy (EM) pipelines, aiming to improve EM image quality. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physics at Leiden University, focusing…

I’m a PhD candidate curious about automatically solving complex climate-related problems with Automated Machine Learning. I want to create robust models from challenging datasets using my interdisciplinary skillset. Furthermore, I’m passionate about making AI accessible, from communicating exciting…

Professor Aske Plaat is Professor of Data Science at Leiden University. He is co-founder of the Leiden Centre of Data Science (LCDS) and initiated the interdisciplinary research programme Society, Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences (SAILS). Between 2016 and 2023 he held the position of scientific…

Alan Kai Hassen is PhD researcher in the Advanced Machine Learning for Innovative Drug Discovery (AIDD) consortium, focusing on (multi-objective) computer-aided synthesis planning.

Michael Lew is the co-head of the LIACS Computer Systems, Imagery and Media Research cluster, which is one of the two main research groups at the Computer Science department at Leiden University.

Transferable skills

Communication, Leadership

Celebrate Leiden University’s 450th anniversary with the special International Staff Week Connecting New Opportunities, taking place from 3 to 5 September. Join academics and professionals to explore transformative developments and challenges of the 21st century in international higher education.

Glyn Muitjens is a PhD candidate at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.

Karsten Lambers is Professor of Digital Imaging in the Humanities at the University of Augsburg, Germany, and guest researcher at the Faculty of Archaeology. At Leiden University, he continues to supervise ongoing PhD projects but no longer accepts new PhD candidates.

Every year, Leiden University hosts the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture to mark International Women’s Day. This year, historian Nadia Bouras will speak about academic freedom, class and being a woman in academia. And that is just as relevant to men, says lecturer and organiser Looi van Kessel.

Master

Having served on the Executive Board for over nine years, the last five of which as Rector Magnificus, Hester Bijl will leave Leiden University at the start of next year. In a new step in her career, she will become Rector Magnificus on the Executive Board of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)…

Jonathan D. London is Associate Professor of Global Political Economy - Asia at the Leiden Institute of Area Studies. He has previously held positions at the City University of Hong Kong and Nanyang Technological University. London is a leading scholar of contemporary Vietnam. He holds a PhD in sociology…

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…

Leiden Teachers’ Academy is proud to welcome six new fellows. They will share their expertise with the rest of the university and launch innovative education projects.

It is with deep sorrow that we share the news that our dear colleague Andrea Evers passed away on Monday, 4 August 2025. Since 2013, Andrea had been affiliated with the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Leiden University as Professor of Health Psychology. She was an undeniable driving force…

Wearing All Stars and ‘just’ a pair of jeans, with a backpack slung over his shoulder. It was an informal Friday afternoon with Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General, at Wijnhaven. Perched on a desk, he took questions from students in the audience.

Prof. dr. Pancras Hogendoorn is stepping down as dean of the Faculty of Medicine and vice-chair of the Executive Board of Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC). He is also resigning from all associated secondary posts. Hogendoorn has taken his decision in anticipation of the findings of an inquiry…

The Schoof cabinet has presented its budget. As expected, higher education is facing severe cuts. In the coming period, the Executive Board will regularly look at the consequences of what it deems an irresponsible policy.

Research

Paul Gobée (LUMC), Kirsty Rolfe (Humanities) and Frank Takes (Science) have been nominated for the Leiden Teaching Prize 2023.

It is crucial that Leiden University reflects on its colonial history. These were the words of Cleveringa Professor Gert Oostindie in his inaugural lecture on 24 November. ‘As a university community, we must dare to hold up a mirror to ourselves and, where possible and necessary, also take concrete…

Gert Oostindie, Emeritus Professor of Colonial and Postcolonial History, is this year’s Cleveringa Professor at Leiden University. He was appointed by the University on 4 October. In his inaugural lecture on 24 November, entitled Courage and Disregard, he will talk about (academic) freedom in relation…

Professor Nira Wickramasinghe has won the American Historical Association John F. Richards Prize in South Asian History for her book Slave in a Palanquin. Colonial Servitude and Resistance in Sri Lanka' (Columbia University Press: New York 2020).

Courses, business premises for startups or help applying for patents: there are many ways the university can help students or researchers with their businesses.

If we want to solve the complex issues now facing us as people and as an organisation, leadership is an absolute necessity: and then not only from supervisors and managers, but from everyone. You can use the set of cards and the animation developed specially for this purpose to gain insight into your…

Portraits that gaze at you and have moving stories to tell: HEAR ME NOW says what usually remains unsaid.

How do you know if a drug will actually work? The Leiden-based spin-off Omivera is developing a new technology that could provide clearer answers. The young company received a seed investment from the investment fund UNIIQ to support its development.

Who holds rights to Greenland’s surrounding waters and natural resources? Which interests are at stake and for whose benefit? We put these questions to Hilde Woker, who specialises in the law of the sea in the Arctic.

Leiden University researchers will be working more closely with colleagues at Una Europa partner universities this year. Three research projects have been awarded up to €40,000 in Una Europa seed funding to explore questions related to democracy and AI, web tracking technologies and clean energy.

Researchers from Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the Leiden-based biotech company Ncardia have joined forces to develop a new platform that enables the automated production of 3D cardiac microtissues. This platform will allow large numbers of drugs to be tested quickly

‘In the field of AI, Leiden is still a relatively unseen university,’ says Thomas Dohmen. The brand-new Director AI Collaboration Center, would like to forge a Leiden AI collaboration network, with sustainable and impactful relationships between the university and civil society organisations. The question…