Synthetic cells, also known as artificial cells or protocells, have wide ranging applications from drug delivery vectors to cell models. In biotechnology they can function as micro- or nanoreactors with possible applications in biocatalysis and photocatalysis. Phospholipids are by far the most commonly…

Does a moving hybrid zone leave a genomic footprint?

Hybrid Intelligence (HI) is the combination of human and machine intelligence, expanding human intellect instead of replacing it. HI takes human expertise and intentionality into account when making meaningful decisions and perform appropriate actions, together with ethical, legal and societal values.…

Hybrid zones occur where two species meet and produce offspring (hybrids). Typically, hybrids show a considerable reduction in fitness. In this thesis two hybrid zones are treated.

This dissertation explores how Large Language Models (LLMs) can effectively and responsibly contribute to complex decision-making processes. By combining AI and human intelligence, Hybrid Intelligence (HI) emerges, allowing the strengths of both humans and machines to be utilized.

Promotor: C. W. J. Beenakker, Co-promotor: J. K. Asboth

Industrial manufacturing processes, such as the production of steel or the stamping of car body parts, are complex semi-batch processes with many process steps, machine parameters and quality indicators.

The Data-Driven Drug Discovery Network (D4N) is an initiative by researchers from Leiden University and collaborators to join efforts in applying and developing novel techniques from data science to drug discovery and related topics from bioinformatics.

A comparative analysis of legitimation strategies in tree hybrid regimes: Russia, Venezuela, and Seychelles.

The use of increasingly large and diverse datasets to guide urban climate action has implications for how, and by whom, local governments are held accountable.

Predictive maintenance (PdM) is a maintenance policy that uses the past, current, and prognosticated health condition of an asset to predict when timely maintenance should occur.

There are about 35,000 students with chronic illnesses in the Netherlands. If they cannot receive education in the classroom, they may be able to do so from home or a hospital with hybrid education. The question in this study is: how can interaction with the teacher and fellow students be promoted?

The key characteristic of active matter is the motion of an emergent collection (such as a flock of birds), which is driven by the consumption of energy by its active components (i.e. individual birds).

A Josephson junction is a device where a thin insulating barrier or a nanostructure is placed between two superconducting leads. Such a junction is essential to superconducting qubits that store quantum information due to its anharmonic spectrum.

This project involves research into the oeuvre of the Sundanese sculptor Iko, who has worked for the Catholic mission in Java and has carved sculptures for a chapel and church in Ganjuran. The images were designed by the Catholic layman Jos Schmutzer and are characterized by a fusion in style and symbolism…

On 7 February 2019, Helena Ursic-Vrabec defended her thesis 'Uncontrollable: Data subject rights and the data- driven economy'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. S. van der Hof.

Metal complexes and 2D materials like graphene were combined to produce structures that can function as sensors.

Machine Learning is becoming a more and more substantial technology for industry.

Promotores: Prof.dr. T.H.W. Bäck, Prof.dr. M.R.V. Chaudron, Co-Promotor: M.T.M. Emmerich

PhD defence

Indigenous Latin American artifacts have attracted the interest of Europeans since the earliest moment of contact between Europeans and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The ERC-funded BECACO project uses an innovative multidisciplinary framework to investigate the provenance of ethnographic and…

Promotor: Prof.dr. B.R. Katzy, Co-promotor: R. Ortt

On 2 April 2025, Anna Marhold, a member of the Peace and Security Committee of the AIV and Assistant Professor at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, joined a technical briefing to parliament providing advice on hybrid threats and societal resilience.

Bart Schuurman sheds light on the alarming trend in both the frequence and geographical spread of these incidents with The Parliament Magazine.

The research in this dissertation aims to optimise blood donation processes in the framework of the Dutch national blood bank Sanquin. The primary health risk for blood donors is iron deficiency, which is evaluated based on donors' hemoglobin and ferritin levels.

Our annual "Science to Experience" exhibition of student works is hosted by the V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media. This year's theme is "HYBRID".

The role of material production as a driver of environmental impacts is increasing, which calls for a better understanding of global material flows. This thesis explores the role of in-use stocks of products, buildings and infrastructure as a key driver of global material demand and discusses the implications…

From 11-13 April 2019, a group of 11 students from LUC and the Advanced MSc. programme in International Relations and Diplomacy attended the event NATO@70 in Portugal – Countering hybrid threats with hybrid containment: NATO’s mission for the 21st century. Leiden University’s participation in the event…

Since September, a large part of education is 'hybrid': students can attend courses both at home (online) and in person in lecture halls. How do students themselves feel about this? We asked Emma and Cornelia of the Research Master Classics and Ancient Civilizations.

Promotor: H.J.M. de Groot

‘It is OK for employees to work flexibly, as long as they spend 40 hours in the office’, said Elon Musk in June 2022. Are we back where we started now that the pandemic is over? What is needed to make flexibility prosper? Helen Pluut is researcher in Organizational Behaviour at Leiden University and…

Ben Wielstra studies hybrid zones, regions in which distinct populations of organisms meet, mate and produce genetically admixed offspring. In the journal Current Biology, he introduces hybrid zones in an accessible way.

This thesis focuses on the development of sample-preparation methods for small amounts of samples and applying the developed methods to muscle tissues to investigate the mechanisms involved in sarcopenia.

Nature uses a special class of histone proteins, histone variants, to modulate the properties of chromatin at defined genomic locations.

This article provides an in‐depth assessment of lone actor terrorists’ attack planning and preparation.

Promotor: Prof.dr. T. Hankemeier, Co-promotor: R.J. Vreeken

This thesis investigates the application of deep learning techniques in image analysis across various domains, focusing on four main themes: feature extraction, classification, segmentation, and integration, demonstrating the transformative potential of these technologies.

Raffaele Marchetti (2021). Hybrid Diplomacy with NGOs: The Italian Formula. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-86869-7, 135 pp., €46.00 (eBook).

From 16 to 19 September 2021 a hybrid conference will take place on animation in the Middle Ages. This conference is a cooperation between the University of Bergen (Norway) and the A. Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw, Branch Campus in Bialystok (Poland).

Drugs-related violence in Mexico is similar in terms of dynamics and strategy to the IS hybrid war in the West. This is the claim made by Teun Voeten. PhD defence 20 September.

A consortium made up of Leiden University (Institute of Public Administration/Digitalisation & Public Policy, Bram Klievink, Sarah Giest, Bart Schermer), VU (Professor Fabio Massacci), TU Delft, TNO, and Thales has been awarded a NWO grant of 1.5 million euros. This research project looks into the ‘metadata…

You have prepared a research project, put together a plan, and you are ready to travel to the country where you will be conducting your fieldwork. What do you do when Covid suddenly makes that impossible? Nadia Sonneveld was forced to relocate her project Living on the Other Side to a hybrid form: ‘It…

During this year's Dutch Film Festival (NFF), which took place from 27 September to 5 October in Utrecht, a new Artificial Intelligence-driven Virtual Reality project was pitched for BoostNL. This project, The Great Orator, was conceived by the Dutch interactive illustrator Daniel Ernst and realized…

This thesis pioneers diatom molecular identification and quantification through genome-scale methods, with four key aims: (i) reviewing DNA/RNA sequencing methods in aquatic biomonitoring to highlight their strengths and limitations;