Organisation

Leiden University and four other Dutch universities will appoint 51 PhD candidates to conduct solution-oriented research for and with the African continent.

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.

Organisation

Timo Kos has been appointed Vice President of Leiden University’s Executive Board and will take up the role on 1 March 2025. He succeeds Martijn Ridderbos, who will join the board of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) on 1 January 2025.

Just like last academic year, students from Leiden University will get the chance to gain practical experience at KPN. In cooperation with the telecom company, two Impact Challenges are being offered, around the theme 'building bridges'.

Organisation

With a symbolic basketball pass, the construction company handed over the new sports centre to the university on 1 December. The building is ready to be fitted out for use. From 9 February, all are welcome: to do sports or just explore.

The moving boxes are unpacked, the floors are gleaming, and the workshop rooms look fresh and inviting. On Monday 16 June, the renovated Lorentz Center will be officially reopened by dean Jasper Knoester and rector Hester Bijl. Director Roeland Merks: ‘There’s a new energy running through our centre…

Organisation

You might be wondering what the reconstruction of the former V&D store at Spui in The Hague looks like now. If so, you can come and find out for yourself. On Saturday 8 June 2024, from 10.00 – 13.00 hrs., the building site of the new Campus The Hague Leiden University Building will be open to the pu…

What started as an idea during a social gathering led to an unexpected breakthrough in research on resistant bacteria. Biologists and chemists from Leiden developed a new substance that proves to be effective against bacteria resistant to antibiotics. They published their discovery in Nature Chemist…

Leiden artist Jos Agasi gets to create the artwork for the atrium of the new Gorlaeus Building. His work was chosen from several entries and will be a real eye-catcher in the building. The artist has a fascination for light and uses it to create works of art with all kinds of materials, objects and…

Aukje Beers combined theory and practice, as well as chemistry, biology, and computer models. In this way, she discovered two protein inhibitors during her master’s project that could contribute to the development of a new cancer drug. For her research, Beers received the Unilever Research Prize on…

Researchers from Leiden University analysed almost 30 years of communication on astrobiology. News articles proved most speculative, especially via quotes from scientists. Especially exoplanet research is often accompanied by high expectations about extraterrestrial life, they write in PLOS One.

Geert de Snoo is making the transition from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology to the management of KNAW. Starting 1 October, the professor of Environmental Biology will begin his role as Director of Research Policy in a new, consensus-based management team.

An international team of researchers led by astronomers from Leiden University (the Netherlands) has produced the first sharp radio maps of the universe at low frequencies. Thanks to a new calibration technique, they bypassed the disturbances of the Earth's ionosphere. They used the new method to study…

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.

This Thursday saw the launch of PLNT The Hague, an entrepreneurial hub where Campus The Hague students can learn all about entrepreneurship. They will have the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills, build a network and begin an innovative startup.

After many years of preparations, CERN has approved a groundbreaking new experiment: the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP). Physicist Alexey Boyarsky was involved from the start. ‘We know there is physics that’s missing and we aim to find it.’

From scanners in lecture halls to systems for working from home: the discussion about new technology is being held on various fronts. That is why the University wants to make more use of its in-house experts. At the Technology and Trust symposium at Leiden University on 2 February, researchers from…

The Student Cabinet, a shadow cabinet with students from the Dutch universities, has presented its first ‘coalition agreement’. As Minister for New Democracy, Leiden student Zeineb Romdhane says inclusion should form ‘the basis of our democracy’.

When the tokay gecko loses its tail, a new one grows from resident stem cells at the stump. Each tissue type - muscle, bone, blood vessels and skin - develops from specific stem cells. This discovery by Luthfi Nurhidayat holds potential implications for advancing regenerative medicine in humans. Nurhidayat…

It was a memorable start to September. While Leiden marked the opening of the academic year, The Hague celebrated the launch of three new degree programmes. Students were welcomed on a blue carpet rolled out at the entrance to the lecture halls.

What if AI doesn’t just support engineers, but actually works alongside them? A large consortium, including Leiden University, gets 3.7 million euros. They will explore novel synergies between engineers and AI, in industrial engineering design areas such as automotive engineering.

How to implement good leadership? This is the central question posed during the inspiration seminars of the LLP, in which renowned guest speakers share their insights. A seminar at the beginning of May imparts this message: “Keep listening to one another.”

From 1 October, two new Directors of Education will start at the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL). Dennis Claessen as the new director for the master's programme of Biology and Marcel Schaaf as director for the Biology bachelor's programme. Claessen and Schaaf have been appointed for a period of four…

Organisation

A beautiful speech by vice-dean Bart de Smit, a mini-lecture on exoplanets and the presentation of three faculty awards. That's how we started the new year at the faculty. Together with colleagues and students, we raised our glasses to a new year full of great collaborations, science and education.

A festive opening with plenty of orange, a well-attended lecture by Ionica Smeets and an unforgettable party for staff and students. We celebrated the opening of the new building together. Join us as we look back on this exciting week of celebrations.

Astronomers at Leiden University have detected rare isotopes of carbon and oxygen in our neighbouring stars for the first time, providing a new window to better understand the chemical evolution of the cosmos.The results are published today in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Leiden University has set up two committees to consider issues that are the focus of much attention within our community and society at large. They are the Knowledge Security Committee and the Fossil Fuel Industry Collaboration Committee. Former dean Joanne van der Leun will chair both.

Did he dare take a gamble with his PhD research? Jeroen Methorst didn’t have to think long about it. It could fail or turn out very well. The latter is the case. Methorst developed a computer system that helps researchers find the protein they need. ‘Our whole group is now using this program.’ Methorst…

And the construction has started! Students of the Leiden Science study associations ceremoniously hammered down the first poles of the new Gorlaeus on Tuesday morning. By doing so, they initiated the second phase of the construction of the second part of the new building.

International researchers have, for the first time, pinpointed the moment when planets began to form around a star beyond the Sun. Using the ALMA telescope, in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, and the James Webb Space Telescope, they have observed the creation of the first…

Lecture

A suitcase as a messenger of quantum science. That is the idea behind QuanTour, a project connecting researchers from 12 European universities. In December, the suitcase landed in Leiden. A month later, it is time to pass the baton to Copenhagen. But what happened to it in Leiden?

PhD candidate Daniël Gomon has developed statistical methods that could significantly improve research in fields like medicine and demography. ‘Mathematicians don’t like unrealistic assumptions,’ he says. Gomon will defend his PhD thesis on 19 June.

How do cells repair their damaged DNA—and what happens when that process is hindered and cancer arises? Sarah Moser has taken a closer look during her PhD, uncovering surprising insights that could help improve future cancer treatments.