The STW project Energy Efficient Computer-Brain Interaction (principal investigator for LIACS: dr. T.P. Stefanov) has been granted. Funding for LIACS: 1 PhD student + travel/equipment budget, project duration: 4 years.

Physicist Remko Fermin from Leiden University was awarded a Rubicon grant from NWO. He will use it to study superconducting diodes that could contribute to reducing the CO2 emission of data centres.

PhD defence

In 2009, the European Union adopted the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), mandating Member States to obtain 10% of all transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020.

Leiden University continued to reduce its carbon footprint in 2021 by being more careful with natural resources and making structural reductions to its energy consumption. This is what it says in the Sustainability Report 2021.

The theoretical explanation of cosmic acceleration is nowadays one of the biggest puzzles in cosmology.

The availability of natural resources, the energy transition, the importance of circularity and our dependence on China. This and more is what Professor of Industrial Ecology René Kleijn's inaugural lecture is about.

HEPGAME is a research project that combines the world’s fastest computer algebra system for High Energy Physics equations, FORM, with insights from artificial intelligence. The name combines High Energy Physics and Games.

Minister Alexandra van Huffelen will attend the 'Leadership in the digital transition' event at Campus Wijnhaven organised by Alex Ingrams on 16 February. Five questions to Ingrams about the event.

Physicist Daniël Geelen has developed a new microscope that uses low-energy electrons. Those are less harmful to biological and organic materials. Geelen defends his PhD thesis on May 31st.

The energy and water consumption and CO2 footprint of all buildings at Leiden University can now be seen on its new Duurzaam in Beeld website. ‘We do a lot about sustainability,’ says Jeroen Waijenberg, Sustainability and Energy Coordinator at the University’s Real Estate Directorate. ‘But our efforts…

What does digitalisation mean for the labour market, the business sector and society in general? Reijer Passchier, Assistant Professor Leiden Law School and Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Constitutional State at the Open University, spoke at a meeting of the Social and Economic Council…

This project investigates the role of art in the public and academic debate on biosolar energy

Erik Danen is the new Dean of the Graduate School from 1 January. He is a professor at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research and conducts research into cancer drugs. Danen is really looking forward to it: ‘PhD candidates are a special group: that's what I like to dedicate myself to.’

The chemical industry must continue to innovate for a more sustainable, healthier society. The reseachers from the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) contribute by applying their knowledge to themes such as sustainability, energy and health.

Within the Centre we cover several research themes.

The Municipality of The Hague called on researchers to come up with a proposal for an innovative research project on problems big cities face such as energy transition. Four of the five projects that have been granted funding come from researchers from Leiden University.

On 21 April 2022, the Democracy and Citizenship thematic stream organized a seminar which focused on the question of citizenship under conditions of global crises. Three researchers presented their work during this seminar: Marion Collewet “Participatory Value Evaluation of policy options for the…

The energy transition ranks high on the European policy agenda, but what does it take to get there? René Kleijn researches how we can extract, use and reuse raw materials in a responsible way. Since 1 March, he has been appointed professor of Resilient resource supply.

Recently the WTO panel report on India – Solar Cells (DS 456) was distributed. Under India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), solar power developers were required to use certain types of solar cells and modules manufactured in India for power generation projects in order to ultimately…

Lecture, Tuesday Talks: Science Insights

Leiden University no longer wishes to collaborate with fossil fuel partners that are not demonstrably committed to achieving the Paris Agreement targets. Exceptions will be made only if a collaboration demonstrably contributes to the energy transition. This proposal by the Executive Board was discussed…

They can play a role in metabolic disorders and can break down tough plant fibers: β-glycosidases are enzymes that play many roles in nature. Fredj Ben Bdira changed these enzymes in order to enhance the production of clean energy and to improve the treatment of patients with metabolic diseases.

Education & outreach

Turkey's Belle Epoque and the Transition to a Modern Nation State

For the first time, scientists have traced back a high-energy neutrino to its source in space. It was produced by a so-called blazar—a supermassive black hole. Researchers from neutrino detector IceCube report this in Science. ‘This is a milestone for neutrino science,’ says physicist Dorothea Samtleben…

Following ASEAN Customs Transit System pilots in Cambodia, Lao, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the ASEAN Customs Transit System (ACTS) system has now been formally launched for general use.

Understanding the proces of electrochemical reactions is essential to improve the technology for the energy transition. Fuel cell cars, for example use hydrogen produced from the electrolysis of water. Mariana Monteiro did fundamental research on the process and won two prizes with her thesis.

The research group headed by Leiden chemist Marc Koper has discovered a catalyst that minimizes the production of chlorine gas during salt water electrolysis. The invention can enable the direct production of hydrogen from seawater. The article has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical…

Two things are needed to produce fuel from sunlight: an antenna that harvests light, and a light-driven catalyst. The most efficient antennae contain bacteria. An international team headed by Huub de Groot imitated them and discovered how they function.

.

Charlotte Vrendenbarg is Assistant Professor intellectual property rights (IP) at Leiden University. She was recently sworn in as deputy judge at the District Court of The Hague, exactly 30 years after her mother was installed as a judge in Breda. ‘Following in her footsteps was not a goal in itself,…

The Kroese-Duijsters Symposia aim to provide researchers from different fields and different career stages to meet in an informal setting, to stimulate discussions and to start new collaborations. The Kroese-Duijsters Symposia started in 2022 and we are pleased to invite you to the 2nd Kroese-Duijsters…

Due to technological change, jobs and professions are constantly changing. For instance, it has long been known that some jobs are becoming redundant due to automation. Digitalisation and the rise of artificial intelligence are more recent developments that affect the labour market.

Dr Moritz Jesse, Associate Professor of European Law at the Europa Institute Leiden, was sharing his thoughts on the transition from asylum seeker to refugee from a perspective of immigrant integration in Prague.

We explore the particle physics and quantum world at the time of the big bang.

Prof. Ottervanger, professor emeritus of European Law and Dutch Competition Law has analysed 36 final court judgments concerning decisions by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) in competition cases. The report was part of the review of the ACM that was conducted by the Dutch Ministry…

Sustainability researchers can play an important role in the energy transition. But what if their partners are not (yet) sustainable and science itself has adverse effects? This is the subject of an online talk by researcher Thomas Franssen on 16 December with a discussion afterwards. ‘Clean energy…

On Tuesday 10 March 2015 - 10h Ernst Worrell, professor at the University of Utrecht with a chair on

Have you had your eye on one of our Summer Schools? Or perhaps a Summer School elsewhere to complement your Law Master, but you have not been able to decide whether it has enough added value? One of our international alumni, Mariasole Forlani, tells us enthusiastically about her experience of the international…

Promotor: M.T.M. Koper, Co-promotor: J.B.F. Juurlink

At the largest scales, two ingredients dictate the distribution of matter in the Universe. The first is dark matter, acting as an invisible scaffolding held together by gravitational forces.

The public sector is increasingly a multi-level system, with interactions between public and private actors on the national, sub-national (provinces, regions) and international level and various public, semi-public and private organisations that perform public tasks. In this minor students pay attention…

A radical reduction in the amount of meat, dairy and other products sourced from animals is possible in the coming decades, as people turn to an increasing variety of alternatives. This would unlock vast amounts of land that we could use to produce energy and remove carbon from the atmosphere. Leiden…