Search - Leiden University

Giving makes you happy News - 3 December 2021
Receiving a gift is nice, but giving a present also makes you happy. Development psychologist Mara van der Meulen former member of the Leiden Consortium on Individual Development (L-CID) answered four questions about giving gifts.

Supergenes make bizarre traits possible News - 13 June 2022
Within the same species of butterfly many different wing patterns can occur. How is this possible? According to researchers Ben Wielstra and Emma Berdan, of the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), the answer lies within supergenes. A supergene is a part of a chromosome that contains many strongly linked…

New technology could make hard-to-recycle plastics recyclable News - 18 February 2025
Cookware handles, electrical plugs, brake pads. Unlike other plastics, these ‘thermosets’ cannot simply be melted down and reshaped, making them difficult to recycle. Chemist Roxanne Kieltyka and her team are now exploring a way to make these materials recyclable, potentially transforming the way we…

A ‘lock’ to make genetic modification safer News - 23 September 2021
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be useful allies in the fight against critical environmental problems. Could because the use of GMOs is strictly regulated at the moment. A Leiden student team is now trying to make these GMOs safer with the aid of an ingenious lock.

Making the invisible visible with ‘click chemistry’ News - 7 December 2023
Sander van Kasteren (Professor of Molecular Immunology) makes the invisible visible. He will explain more in his inaugural lecture.

Students help make Maldives more fertile News - 4 March 2024
Its idyllic setting and white sandy beaches have made the Maldives a hotspot for tourists. This provides an income but is a problem for the fragile natural environment. Students from various universities worked with the local people to make the soil more fertile. How did they go about it?

How to make cryptographic techniques more efficient? News - 1 June 2023
Sharing scientific data, transferring money, or sending other sensitive information online: with cryptography, applications make sure your data does not fall into the wrong hands. Mathematician Thomas Attema (CWI/TNO/Leiden University) helps with this. For his PhD research, he developed a new technique…

Special donor makes stroke recovery research possible News - 19 September 2024
How do you ensure that people who have had a stroke get the right therapy at the right time? This is the question researcher Jorit Meesters wants to answer.

Calling on universities and funders: make research information open News - 16 April 2024
Crucial information about research, funding or how university rankings are created is often not freely accessible. The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information calls for such information to be made open. Professor Ludo Waltman is one of its initiators. What needs to change?

This platform is making machine learning more transparent and accessible News - 21 July 2025
What began as a PhD project has grown into a website with 120,000 unique visitors each year. With the platform OpenML, researcher Jan van Rijn is contributing to open science, aiming to make machine learning more transparent, accessible, and fair.

PhD research: How international prosecutors make their choices News - 15 February 2022
International prosecutors, for instance at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, investigate particularly serious crimes such as genocide. They decide, among other things, whether or not to prosecute. PhD candidate Cale Davis investigated how prosecutors come to such decisions and will defend…

Students work on bacterium that makes sustainable plastic News - 7 September 2023
A group of biology students are working on a solution to the world’s plastics problem by getting bacteria to make biodegradable plastic.

Renewed Leiden Leadership Programme ‘provides tools to make a difference’ News - 27 June 2022
The Leiden Leadership Programme is going to innovate. After 12 years, the honours track for master’s students will get a new set-up. We asked two of those involved about the ins and outs of the new LLP. ‘You learn what leadership style suits you and how to make an impact.’

New research project makes the internet even better News - 20 April 2022
How is it that the internet works so well, with billions of users sending millions of gigabytes all together every day? That's because the foundation of the internet is solidly set up. Yet sometimes there are problems on the internet. For example, when certain systems misbehave and disrupt the routing…