During the coronavirus pandemic, scientists were in a hurry to find drugs that would help fight the disease. To combine the research that was being carried out around the world, PhD candidate Judith ter Schure developed a new statistical method: ALL-IN meta-analysis. This helps determine sooner whether…

It’s not something the police force wants to see, but it still occurs: racist and misogynist police conduct. Human rights specialist Dr Linda Louis has studied how technology could help police officers behave correctly and comply with the applicable legal norms.

Delve into the depths of black hole imaging as anthropologist Rodrigo Ochigame unveils the human decisions shaping its portrayal. Explore four alternative color choices at the 'Towards the Black Hole' exhibit, now showing at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Leiden.

How safely do you handle your data? Privacy officer Eric van Hoof assists researchers and staff with this. 'The biggest mistake people make is thinking they have nothing to hide.' He has some useful tips.

Industrial sites are built for safety, but are they prepared for security breaches? As concerns grow over threats to national security, these sites are a target. The Securdomino project built a tool to prevent malicious attacks and rethinks how we define security.

After the summer, the SPSS statistics programme will be replaced by the new ‘R’ software for first year students. Hemmo Smit and Sjoerd Huisman, both lecturers in Methodology and Statistics, initiated this major change in the curriculum. That did not happen overnight.

After working full-time for twenty-four years, Wendy Tonks decided to enrol in the executive master's in Cyber Security. She now proudly reflects on her time in the programme after receiving a ten for her thesis and graduating summa cum laude. ‘I could not believe it when I got my grade.’

Whether a microbe is beneficial or harmful to a plant can now be predicted with high accuracy thanks to bacLIFE. This bioinformatic tool with an intuitive interface makes it much easier to unlock the secrets of bacterial genomes. A group of Leiden biologists presented it in Nature Communications.

On March 13, Dr. Erik Deul passed away at the age of 67. He leaves behind his wife Wilma, children Caroline and Wouter, and grandchildren Joris, Stach, Viggo, Archie and and a granddaughter expected later this year. Erik served as head of ICT at Leiden Observatory for 35 years, and later also at the…

Fraud and plagiarism in assessment can unfortunately be seen everywhere, even among our students. In relation to this, as an examiner you have an important role in safeguarding academic integrity.

ICT

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.

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.

Last year, investments were made in new research facilities within the Faculty of Humanities. It is now time for the next step: improving research infrastructure, funded by a COIn grant.

Research

Self-directed learning is more suitable for intermediate and advanced language learners than for beginners.

Marcello Bonsangue will be the new Scientific Director of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) from January 2024. Bonsangue has been appointed for four years. He succeeds Aske Plaat, who led the institute for eight years.

ICT, Research

Working from your Leiden room with students from the United States: Univeristy Lecturer Dario Fazzi’ students will soon be able to take up this challenge. He receives a grant from the Faculty of Humanities and ECOLe to set up a ‘virtual exchange programme.

When Dutch company AFAS Software announced that its employees would work four days per week for the same full-time pay, many people asked: how’s that possible? Professor Olaf van Vliet spoke to Trouw and Nu.nl about the challenges of this model.

Leiden University has become a member of OpenAIRE, a European non-profit e-infrastructure organisation that supports open science. Leiden University Libraries (UBL) submitted the application on behalf of the university.

John Boy will be an Urban Citizen Fellow for the next academic year with his research project Urban Citizenship and Emerging Critical Technical Practices in Amsterdam. He will research the question: What critical technical practices are technologists in Amsterdam experimenting with, and how they can…

The ISSC's ICT helpdesk receives dozens of questions from staff and students every day. A collaboration between TNO, LUCL and the ISSC aims to determine whether a specially designed chatbot could provide support in this area.

What impact does growing up in a musical environment or during the COVID-19 pandemic have on the brain development of teenagers? This was the focus of psychologist Lina van Drunen’s PhD research, which studied hundreds of twins. Her findings reveal that practising music slows brain development, presenting…

Over a period of seven years, researchers from the International Brain Laboratory mapped 279 brain regions at the cellular level. Their findings are now published in Nature, with both data and software openly shared. Cognitive neuroscientist Anne Urai: 'Any researcher with a good question can make use…

Within a single generation, the digital world has changed completely: from a technical niche for ‘nerds’ to a reality that affects everyone. Cyberattacks, data breaches and system failures can disrupt essential social processes. How can we ensure that our society remains digitally resilient?

Security

Andrew Hoffman (CADS), Mark Westmoreland (CADS) and Yasmin Ismail (CADS) have received a KIEM grant of € 10.000 for their project 'CARMA: Community Archive and Repository for Multimodal and Artistic Research'. The grant will be used to create a 'living laboratory' that helps researchers, data management…

Education, ICT

Finance, Organisation

In a column on Mr. Online, Dirk Visser, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, looks at what You Tube is doing or should be doing to counter copyright infringements on the platform in a credible and effective manner.

As of 1 September, Tim van Surksum will take on the role of assessor for our faculty. The 22-year-old second-year Mathematics student is excited about his appointment.