People who can solve problems are urgently needed in an increasingly complex world. Leiden University is a breeding ground for such talented individuals. We help our students discover, develop and use their talents.

Practicum Musicae (PM) is a programme specially developed for students of Leiden University with a talent for music.

The Leiden Science Young Talent Award is awarded yearly to a student who completed their bachelor’s degree with an excellent thesis.

How do teachers’ knowledge, practices, perceptions, job satisfaction and workload in secondary education develop during a school innovation in the context of differentiated student development?

This project aims to analyze and increase student motivation and achievement during the first three years of secondary school with an intervention that focuses on development of students’ talents.

Good teaching isn’t as easy as it might seem. In November, the Month of Open Teaching, staff at Leiden University therefore have the opportunity to ‘spy’ on talented colleagues. ‘We are making it as easy as possible to see what the neighbours are up to.’

Software engineers hard to find.

The short film El Último Consejo (The Last Council), directed by alumna Itandehui Jansen, has won the Emerging Talent Award at the ImagineNative Film & Media Arts Festival in Toronto.

Mathematics student in Leiden Michel Zoeteman received an Encouragement Prize of no less than 500 euro from the “Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (KHMW)” Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities on Monday 30 November 2015.

Leiden University has almost sixty talented students who are studying at the Royal Conservatory in parallel with their degree programme. They will be demonstrating their talents in a series of nine public concerts.

America will not be choosing the next President until 8 November. Nonetheless, election fever is already running high. University lecturer and political commentator Kees Boonman explains the phenomenon and shows what Dutch politicians can learn from it.

The Faculty of Humanities is looking for creative students who would like to share their talent for their Live Lunch Friday.

Prof. dr. Frank den Hollander, professor at the Mathematical Intitute, has expressed his concerns about the departure abroad of Dutch academic talents in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant.

Bastiaan Rijpkema, legal scholar and philosopher at Leiden University has won the 2017 New Scientist Academic Talent Prize.

The magazine New Scientist selected 25 nominees from candidates proposed by all Dutch and Belgian universities for the New Scientist Science talent 2015 election. One of these nominees is dr. Marieke Liem, who works at the Centre for Terrorism & Counterterrorism.

The New Scientist magazine has selected two young Leiden scientists for its Top 25 Young Talents in the Netherlands and Flanders: historian Karwan Fatah-Black and neuropsychologist Mariska Kret. Who will be the winner? You can vote for one of them!

Four of Leiden's young, talented ethnic minority graduates are to receive an award as part of the Mosiac programme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The award will allow these budding researchers to fund a four-year research period leading to a doctorate.

Only 35 years old and already a research group leader, on his way to tenure. And: numerous papers, grants and fellowships to his name. Leiden physicist Jordi Tura i Brugués receives today the Young Scientist Prize for his outstanding contributions to quantum research.

Higher design and engineering educators have different views on what a new or renewed curriculum should entail, content-wise as well as pedagogically. This research aims to describe how these ‘curriculum perspective perceptions’ influence working definitions, end goal formulation, and the scope of results…

Have you ever wondered what law has accomplished in different countries and jurisdictions? If it even has accomplished anything at all, or that it are all promises of a better world? And have you ever thought about the role of law in the war on terror, in climate change, in emancipation and protection…

Lotte Croiset van Uchelen has worked at IT company Schuberg Philis for 11 years now. What makes this company so special? Ever since its foundation, only colleagues have worked there. No boss, no management. ‘Why would you need a manager?’

Boudewijn Röell, Leiden medical student and rower with the Asopos rowing club, has won a bronze medal with the Dutch Rowing Eight at the Olympic Games in Rio.

Leiden researchers Fenneke Sysling and Joris van der Voet will be admitted to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences’ The Young Academy.

What is life like as an academic? Twelve PhD candidates will report on their daily work in videos and blogs on the Faces of Science website (in Dutch). They include three researchers from Leiden who are researching topics such as North Korean support for African liberation movements, how differently…

Today, 13 students at Leiden University have started a crowdfunding campaign to collect money for research into the possibilities of growing crops on Mars. Their research will contribute to the knowledge of our galaxy. The project is in the context of the iGEM competition.

This year, Leiden University will participate for the first time in the Cultural Talent to the Top monitor. This will provide insight into the University’s diversity policy with regard to staff from a non-western background. The ultimate aim is to promote ethnic and cultural diversity in certain rol…

Poetry, video editing, musical art: the first installment of the 48 Hour Project, in which students created a piece of art in only two days, has resulted in a wide variety of creativity. For participants, it was a glimmer of light in a rather dark year of lockdowns: “I felt like I was physically there with…

What is it like to be old? Many young people cannot really imagine what it is like. For a group of Honours students, however, this question has been answered. They had the chance to wear an age simulation suit during the Bachelor Honours Class ‘Vitality and Ageing’.

When talking about innovative technologies, Blockchain should certainly be mentioned. In the Honours Class ‘Board the Blockchain Train!’, students learn about the influence of technology on, for example, banking transactions or real estate appraisal.

Organ transplantation is often subject to ethical, economic and political discussions. In the Honours Class Organ Transplantation, students take part in these discussions to get a better understanding of the many different views on transplantation.

More than 200 students completed their Bachelor’s degrees in combination with a three-year Honours programme last year. On 15 November, this resulted in a record number of certificates since the start of the Honours College 9 years ago. While listening to personal speeches, the students received their…

In the Bachelor Honours Class ‘The Noble Art and Tricky Business of Translation’, Honours students learn about the tricky business of translation. To gain hands-on experience, students had to translate a poem for the seminar on poetry. For some translators-to-be, one language was simply not enough.

Most students do not have to deal with death on a daily basis. A Bachelor Honours Class about this specific topic seems to be a special experience: the discussions about end-of-life care are tough, and students are broken out of their comfort zone. They nevertheless agree upon one thing: these are all…

The Casimir Research School is to receive an € 800,000 subsidy from the NWO Graduate Programme to further integrate the master's study and PhD research. Minister Plasterk judged the Leiden-Delft Casimir plan to be one of the best.

Our Talents and Discoveries is a yearly publication by the Faculty of Science of Leiden University, published since 2003. You can read all the editions online. Note that the original publication was in Dutch; the original title translates as 'What we are proud of'.

At the end of January, the fifth installment of the International Leiden Leadership Programme (ILLP) has started. This year twenty masters’ students from ten different countries were selected. In the coming months they will increase their knowledge on leadership and develop their own leadership skills…

How can business strategies help us solve social problems? This was researched by students of the Master Honours Class 'Social Innovation in Action' over the past twenty weeks. During the final seminar of the class they presented their creative enterprises to tackle child poverty in Leiden. ‘It’s not…

Social impact and circular economy. Two topics focusing on the future and bringing forward many concrete problems. Two Master Honours Classes, in which students tackle societal challenges, will start this fall.

Last year around 2,000 international students started a master’s degree at Leiden University. To make this possible, there are various grants that these students can apply for. One such grant is the LExS: the Leiden University Excellence Scholarship Programme. Three LExS students tell us about their…

Four lecturers from Leiden University will receive a 50,000-euro Comenius Teaching Fellow grant. This will enable them and their team to realise an educational innovation within their own teaching.

Ten Leiden researchers will receive funding of up to 280,000 euros from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). They will use this grant to develop their research ideas in the coming three years.

Who is the most inspiring teacher? Who is our most outstanding bachelor student? And which PhD candidate wrote the best thesis? In other words: Who are the winners of the 2023 Faculty Awards?

Summary

A comprehensive analysis of the state of play, the design of monitoring mechanisms, and creation of a toolbox of support measures.

The winner of the Leiden University Thesis Prize has made an original and substantial contribution to argumentation theory. This is what Annetje Ottow, President of the Executive Board and member of the LUF board, said at the online ceremony for the University’s thesis prizes. The winner of the first…

The study association of honours education SLHC established an international commission concerned with the closer involvement of international students in the Honours Community. The language of communication will become English where possible, and more upcoming activities will be organised in The Hague…

On 11 and 19 April, the International Leiden Leadership Programme students got together to participate in a Business Game: a simulation game where the participants get a business case-study they have to solve. The goal? An agreement between all stakeholders – but most importantly: to employ the different…

To achieve societal impact, you need to do more than solely writing academic articles. That's the idea behind the Master Honours Class 'Leiden Revisited', in which students demonstrated with art how residents at the outskirts of Leiden experience the city. 'It's the perfect way to start the debate.'

There are not many classes in which students can talk about their fears, self-critique, or their own happiness. In the Bachelor Honours Class ‘Personal Flourishing and Happiness’, this is exactly the plan.

How would you like to combine your studies at Leiden University with high-level education in the arts? The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts will give you a unique opportunity to develop your academic and artistic talents.