Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing? What kinds of things is he doing and what does his day look like? In each newsletter Jasper gives a peek into his life as dean.

Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life.

For the first time, an international team of scientists led by Leiden Observatory and SRON can explain the extreme jet streams observed around the equators of all the giant planets using a single model.

‘The pupils are enthusiastic and they miss you.’ That’s what a teacher from Haags Montessori Lyceum said in a mail to third-year student Resi Aarts (Bachelor’s in Physics) when she was unable to tutor the pupils one Friday. She and Sem Grootscholten (Master’s in Public Administration) support secondary…

Neanderthals were able to outwit straight-tusked elephants, the largest land mammals of the past few million years. Leiden professor Wil Roebroeks has published an article about this together with his German colleague Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser in the Science Advances journal.

Ever since the first edition of the Science Run, the Leiden Student Running Association Currimus has delivered the winning team or the fastest runner. Now the event is back, the new batch of students must uphold the honour. The board is also forming a team: ‘During the upcoming training session, we…

Since April 2023 the current war in Sudan has brought larger death, destruction, and displacement than any other ongoing armed conflict on earth. And yet, international media coverage of the conflict remains limited.

Peter Stevenhagen delivered daily lectures at the Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering in Lahore, in collaboration with ICTP, a well-known UNESCO institute in Trieste. The aim is to enhance it he knowledge of students from low- and middle-income countries. ‘By teaching here, I can truly…

The ‘Committee for Assessing Ethical Aspects of Partnerships’ is being launched this month. This committee, created by Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl and consisting of former and present Leiden University researchers, has been tasked with assessing Leiden University’s institutional ties with organisations…

With its ‘Quality Agreements’, Leiden University is working to improve the quality of its teaching. Much has been done since they began at the end of 2018. At a meeting for delegates from all the faculties and the University Council on 11 June, it became clear just how much has already been achieved…

Between November 2022 and December 2023, 45 one-off and 14 structural security measures were taken for academics or university staff. This is what it says in the External Intimidation, Hatred and Threats against Academics Monitor published by the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the Dutch Research…

Joost Barendse has been reappointed assessor for the coming year. This means that Joost will represent the students of our faculty for another year. What does he think about this and what are his plans? Three questions to our previous and future assessor.

Lodewijk Govaerts has been appointed by Ingrid van Engelshoven, caretaker Minister of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), as a member of the Board of Governors of Leiden University.

Today’s protest at the University’s Academy Building and the Hortus botanicus ended at around 16.30. The dozens of demonstrators left the grounds voluntarily after the university summoned them to leave.

The Executive Board has appointed Prof. Koen Caminada as Dean of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. Caminada has served as interim dean since April of this year. His new appointment is from 1 September 2024 and is for a period of four years.

Work started today on the Kolffpad student complex, with 289 flats for students from Leiden University. Stichtnig DUWO will own the building and the University owns the site at the Bio Science Park. The building should be complete by mid-2023.

ICT

Understanding what our buildings and cities are made of is an important step in making them more sustainable. Industrial ecologist Tomer Fishman (CML) has received an ERC Starting Grant to map the construction materials used in buildings in the Global South. 'Without the data, you can't formulate po…

Leiden University’s Living Lab is moving to the middle of the Leiden Bio Science Park. In the lab’s new home between the University of Applied Sciences, Mentor and Naturalis Biodiversity Center, the first ditches have now been dug. This new location is more accessible to both researchers and the public.…

The Corstens Commission that investigated whether there are any grounds for the rumours of antisemitism at the Faculty of Law has found no indication whatsoever for such expressions. This also applies to the professor in question. This is evident from the report that the commission chaired by Professor…

An international team of astronomers led by Matus Rybak (Leiden University) has proven, thanks to accidental double zoom, that millimetre radiation is generated close to the core of a supermassive black hole. Their findings have been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

He makes music, goes to the athletics track twice a week and, according to his supervisor, has done his research so well that it would not be out of place in a PhD research. Physics and astronomy student Hidde Stoffels' undergraduate research on the properties of dark matter is of such high quality…

The 289 students who recently moved into the tower on Kolffpad at the Leiden Bio Science Park are sitting pretty. A self-contained unit in the middle of the campus yet surrounded by green, with a launderette, games room and study area on the ground floor, and, coming soon, a branch of Coffee Star.

Can humans sense where north is, using what is known as magnetoreception? This question had master’s student Björn Keyser (Media Technology) so intrigued that he started crowdfunding to be able to study this together with the California Institute of Technology.

Nienke van der Marel has been awarded the New Horizons Prize in physics for her pioneering research on planet formation. This prize is given to young, promising researchers in physics or mathematics. The astronomer and her colleagues found the first observational evidence for 'dust traps' in disks around…

Tuesday 7 September sees the release of the book ‘Plots stond het Leidse leven stil’ by Charlotte Boin, a freelance writer from Leiden. This book of interviews gives an impression of the turbulent effect of coronavirus on the lives of students, researchers and partners of Leiden University.

On top of the Gorlaeus Building’s bike parking sits a hidden green surprise: Leiden’s largest rooftop garden. Since this academic year, the garden has been open to all students and staff.

Carel Stolker, former Rector Magnificus and President of the Executive Board of Leiden University, has been made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for his services to the city and University. Mayor Henri Lenferink awarded the royal honour to Stolker at the University’s Dies Natalis on 8 February…

Many will add them to their shopping list without a second thought, but what if you don't have enough money to buy period products each month? The university has recently started providing packs of affordable sanitary pads and tampons in the SchoolSupply vending machines. ‘It's just like providing toilet…

Nikie Veld is an education coordinator at Biology. Her job now mainly revolves around getting students back to the Faculty. ‘In the corona era, we were constantly rearranging the timetables.’

Researcher Max van Duijn and PhD student Bram van Dijk apply language models to stories told by children to investigate empathy. For this research, they received the Best Paper Award at the Computational Natural Language Learning Conference in Singapore.

Astronomer Joseph Callingham and his team have observed for the first time a clear signal from a giant burst from a star outside our solar system. This would have a devastating impact on any unfortunate planet orbiting the star.

To mark the university’s 450th anniversary, the Leiden Discoveries science route has been updated and was relaunched on the Night of Discoveries. New signs in town and a revamped website tell Leiden residents and visitors the stories of the city’s spectacular discoveries.

A professor from Leiden University has subjected various colleagues to intimidating and unacceptable behaviour for a longer period. These are the findings of an investigation carried out by the University’s independent Complaints Committee for Unacceptable Behaviour at the request of the Executive Board…

Since the demonstration over a year ago on the Wijnhaven campus, Leiden University has developed plans and initiatives to create the safest possible work and study environment for our university community. The Executive Board would like to explain what has happened since and what else we can expect…

Yesterday marked the start of the National Accessibility Week. How accessible is Leiden University for people with a disability? We asked Lucia Langerak, disabled herself and working at the Honours Academy, about her experiences: ‘Significant improvements are being made.’

A team of international researchers led by Tomas Stolker in the Netherlands has imaged a young gas giant exoplanet near a 12-million-year-old star. The planet is orbiting a star at which planet formation has finished, while the same-aged companion star still has a planet-forming disk. The researchers…

Two consortia led by Leiden researchers have been awarded over one million euros by the Dutch Research Council and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to find solutions to antimicrobial resistance.

The discovery of a planet far too large for its sun defies models about the formation of solar systems and planets. In a paper in Science, researchers, including Yamila Miguel of Leiden Observatory, report the discovery of a planet more than 13 times heavier than Earth orbiting the ultracool dwarf star…

Guiding people and helping them flourish. That's what Alexandra Blank's work is about. She has two jobs at W&N and she likes them both. ‘It is precisely because I combine these two jobs that I can do both well'.

A bloody civil war has raged for years in the Central African Republic. PhD candidate Crépin Mouguia points out a tragic pattern: young people have been recruited as fighters or soldiers for generations and thus fuel the conflicts.

For four years, Vicky Beckers examined thin slices of wood under a microscope, mapping the anatomy of two plant families. Her research helps identify different wood species, benefiting both the timber trade and archaeology.

A CT scanner to treat eye cancer, energy-efficient software for the future and a test to identify male chick eggs. Three projects by researchers from Leiden University are to receive funding from research funder NWO’s Open Technology programme, to which the business sector also contributes.

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Important notice: Due to a burst water pipe in the Huygens Building, the building will be closed on Monday 13 and Tuesday 14 October.

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