Irene Battisti is the discoverer of the year 2019. The physicist won the C.J. Kok Public Award for her research into microscopy and superconductors.

2021 was an eventful year once again for the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (FGGA). Hybrid, working from home, online education, on-campus education, face masks, self-tests, keeping distance, quarantine and the coronavirus. Words that have now become a standard part of our vocabulary when…

In dribs and drabs, first-year students in The Hague are discovering their new student town and the University buildings. We followed a group of Security Studies students during the HOP introduction week.

Research report January 2020. Supported by the lectorate ‘Music, Education and Society’, research group ‘Making in Music’, Royal Conservatoire The Hague

The exhibition Leiden celebrates – 450 years of parades at Museum De Lakenhal shows how parades and society have changed through the centuries. Alumnus and historian Danielle van Goethem worked on the exhibition. She gives a preview.

A paper during her master's degree put student Luca Andrea on the trail of Roman coins. While on an internship at the Teylers Museum, she organised the coin collection and came across some fascinating stories. 'Coins have had all kinds of functions.'

Every person on earth can read another person’s mind. Not in the way psychics or witches do, but by putting themselves in the shoes of others and considering how they perceive the world. This kind of empathy greatly facilitates communication and interaction. Max van Duijn studies this phenomenon to…

Leiden was ‘European City of Science’ in 2022. Leiden University looks back on a fantastic year with activities, lectures and workshops full of science and curiosity.

Last January, the education assessors of the different study associations chose Fouzia Lghoul-Oulad Saïd of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) as teacher of the year. Her passion for teaching extends beyond her classes, according to the students who nominated her: ‘ She is always ready…

Astronomers from the Leiden Observatory and from the University of Rochester (in the US) have discovered that the planetary ring system that covered the very young sun-like star J1407 is actually of enormous proportions. In fact, it’s much larger and heavier than the ring system surrounding Saturn.…

Each year, the Netherlands Institute of Governance (NIG) invites PhD students from Public Administration departments at universities in the Netherlands and Flanders to nominate their supervisor(s) for the NIG Supervisor of the Year Award, to celebrate and recognize excellent PhD supervision. This year,…

An international team of astronomers, including Leiden's Maciej Bilicki, has discovered an enormous supercluster of galaxies. The supercluster had previously been overlooked because it was obscured by our own Milky Way. The researchers are publishing their findings in the Monthly Notices of the Royal…

At FSW, we carry out remarkable projects in research and education. Interdisciplinary, driven by our values, and in collaboration with the world around us. We are pleased to highlight some of our most outstanding projects. This is our 2024 annual overview.

Astronomers led by Pieter van Dokkum have discovered a galaxy that barely contains any dark matter, which actually proves that dark matter does indeed exist. The research results will be published this week in Nature.

In the summer there are three big introduction weeks for new students – EL CID, HOP and OWL – but students also begin their studies in Leiden or The Hague halfway through the year too. International students, for instance, who are coming for on an exchange for a few months. They got to know the University…

Underneath you will find the 12 most important Facebook events that took place at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs in the past year, and an overview of our Instagram highlights of 2018.

Harvesting rice from the same field, without planting new rice plants? A discovery may bring this scenario closer. Leiden scientists have discovered a gene that allows annual plants to grow after flowering, instead of dying. Publication on 13 April in Nature Plants.

Monday June 18th the department of European Prehistory of the Faculty of Archaeology started a five-year research (2018-2022) of two newly discovered barrow groups: Baarlo-De Bong and Venlo-Zaarderheiken (northern Limburg).

Imagine that you need to travel, but you don’t have a car and you’re dead broke. What do you do? Hitchhiking, of course! Leiden biologists found that certain bacteria use this very same tactic: their spores hop on motile bacteria and use them as a taxi, ensuring they reach the right environment to f…

A single tiny molecule that can destroy flu, corona, HIV and Zika viruses? Yes, it really does exist. Biophysicist Niek van Hilten, who will receive his doctorate on 14 September, contributed to this discovery.

Leiden University researchers have discovered by chance a note from 1783 in Papiamento. They are working on a linguistic study on confiscated Dutch letters. The ‘Letters as loot’ project is headed by Professor Marijke van der Wal.

Spycraft, by professor Nadine Akkerman and Pete Langman has been selected by History Today and The Economist as one of 2024’s best books

A new LUMC study has changed our understanding of how cells work. Researchers have discovered that the CFAP20 protein acts as a kind of ‘traffic controller’ on DNA. Without this protein, chaos ensues, potentially causing cancer. Their findings have been published in the prestigious journal Nature.

Three Leiden astronomers have shown that some asteroids that are considered harmless for now, can collide with Earth in the future. They did their research with the help of an artificial neural network. The results have been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

When biology student Mike Groenhof was making a phylogenetic tree of fifty shrimp species for his internship, one specimen turned out to be an undescribed species. The animal was collected by Naturalis scientist 18 years ago, and had been under the radar ever since.

After almost twenty years the record for the most distant radio galaxy has been broken. A team of astronomers led by Leiden PhD candidate Aayush Saxena has discovered a radio galaxy from the time when the universe was just one billion years old. The galaxy is at a distance of 12 billion light years…

In your first year at LUC you gain the basic knowledge and lay the foundation and skills for your specialization in year two and three.

The student weekly diary of Archaeology/Egyptology students, 2022.

The student weekly diary of Archaeology/Egyptology students, 2026.

The student weekly diary of Archaeology/Egyptology students, 2023.

What would a university be without its students? In 2025, we will celebrate 450 years of studying with an exhibition showcasing our students from the past centuries. How did they study in the past? And how do they study now? This outdoor exhibition will be on display from 23 April at the Hortus bota…

The student weekly diary of Archaeology/Egyptology students, 2019.

The student weekly diary of Archaeology/Egyptology students, 2020.

The student bi-weekly online diary of Archaeology/Egyptology students, 2021.

The student weekly diary of Archaeology/Egyptology students, 2024.

The student weekly diary of Archaeology/Egyptology students, 2017

The student weekly diary of Archaeology/Egyptology students, 2018

The student weekly diary of Archaeology/Egyptology students, 2025.

The opening of the Academic Year 2025-2026 took place on Monday 1 September 2025 in the Pieterskerk church.

If spending three years at university and following the entire Dutch Studies programme is not an option for you, we offer an alternative. We have created a challenging one-year programme in which you will learn to speak Dutch and delve into Dutch culture. This programme is less comprehensive, and allows…

Most employed and contract PhD candidates at the Faculty of Archaeology follow a 4-year PhD track in a full-time position.

A marvelous mosaic synagogue floor has been discovered at the Israeli excavation site of Horvat Kur. The timeworn stones of the mosaic clearly form the name ‘El’azar’. Leiden University researcher Jürgen Zangenberg and a group of Leiden students played a role in the excavation. ‘El’azar was likely an…

In this part of the LUC Newsletter Archive you can find the newsletters of block 3 and 4 of academic year 2019 - 2020.

Two teams of astronomers, including one from Leiden University, have discovered oxygen in the most distant known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0. This groundbreaking discovery shows that galaxies could form much faster in the early universe than was previously thought.

Alumni event, Lustrum