The development of new environmentally sound technologies is seen as a key route towards achieving sustainability.

A semi-empirical version of the specific reaction parameter approach to density functional theory (SRP-DFT) has been remarkably successful at predicting dissociative chemisorption probability vs. incidence energy curves for reactions on metal surfaces. New quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations on the…

This thesis studied in depth the energy use and CO2 emissions of the industrial sector in China.

This thesis discusses the physical and chemical processes than influence the composition of forming planets.

Multicopper oxidase, laccase, can efficiently reduce oxygen to water and are mostly used in the enzymatic biofuel cells.

For Leiden University’s operations, sustainability is an important topic, especially looking at the CO2-footprint, renewable energy and the greening of buildings.

Source: Bioorg Med Chem, Volume 23, Issue 14, pp. 4034-49 (2015)

Can bacteria be engineered to convert methanol into valuable chemicals with high efficiency?

In this thesis, we study travelling waves in stochastic reaction-diffusion equations. We extend techniques from the deterministic theory for travelling waves to apply to the stochastic version, which allows us to compute the stochastic wave speed and shape, and draw conclusions on the stability of the…

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.W.M. Frenken

The publication of the recent IPCC report on climate change has not gone unnoticed, to put it mildly, certainly not within the Liveable Planet community.

Promotor: W. Jiskoot, Co-promotor: H.A. Every

This is a facility where research groups or small companies can apply for space if they need to culture human or animal cells.

If you could convert CO2 into building blocks for other molecules with the help of electricity, you could make the chemical industry considerably more sustainable. Leiden chemists have unravelled a fundamental part of this process and applied this knowledge in a real device, as they write in Nature…

Several buildings need to be demolished to make way for phase 2.

Leiden University is working on a green, circular campus, with a significant reduction in energy consumption by 2050 as its goal, as elaborated in the Route Map Energy Transition Buildings, published in 2022.

The overall theme of this thesis is to complement the electrochemical data acquired in fuel cell research with in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS).

De discussie over de sluiting van illegale schietbanen van Defensie, als gevolg van de stikstofwetgeving is ingewikkeld en omvat diverse juridische aspecten. Armin Cuyvers, hoogleraar Europeesrecht, bespreekt de zaak in BNR-Nieuwsradio.

Healthcare Information Systems (HIS) are essential for modern healthcare delivery, yet their development faces significant challenges including heterogeneous data formats, regulatory compliance, and the growing demand for AI-driven decision support.

Curious about how sustainability fits into our university's strategic plan, or how much energy and water we consume? Read about it here.

The energy system is at the heart of two of the greatest challenges of the 21st century: decreasing CO2 emissions to meet the ambitions of the Paris agreement while fulfilling the growing energy demand associated with the economic aspirations of a growing world population.

This thesis describes the use of bioorthogonal proteins in immunological settings. It provides an introduction towards the field of protein modification, which was used throughout the thesis for the expression of proteins containing unnatural amino acids.

Promotores: Arjen Doelman, Jens Rademacher, Max Rietkerk

Managing scarcity to serve the public interest is a classic government task. An important way to execute this task is by allocating individual rights that are only available in limited quantities, such as CO2 emission allowances, gambling licences, subsidies, radio frequencies, public contracts and…

Can Cyanobacteria be engineered to convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the valuable chemical isoprene?

Fundamental understanding of molecular reactions on metal surfaces is important for improving heterogeneous catalysis.

The following page offers tips for more sustainable travel options, such as taking the train or bus, and highlights online tools that can help you plan eco-friendly trips and find affordable tickets.

Metals surfaces form a group of effective catalysts for the reaction of small molecules such as hydrogen (H2).

Before the large scale use of renewable energy sources can be implemented in our society, the storage of electrical energy needs to be tackled. Storage the energy as hydrogen via the reduction of protons is a good option.

We simulate interstellar clouds with special plasma expansions and chemical reactions on icy dust grains to be measured in ultra-high vacuum setups. This provides the data necessary to guide and interpret astronomical observations and to model reaction networks in space. [Harold Linnartz]

Promotor: G.A. van der Marel, Co-promotor: D.C. Codée

Why do some children confront social challenges with confidence, whereas others experience difficulties? What is the role of child temperament and child emotional dispositions? What is the role of parenting? This project aims to shed light on the mechanisms explaining shyness and confidence in response…

Promotor: J.W.M. Frenken, Co-Promotor: R. Felici

Lecture

We investigate reaction systems, a novel computational model gleaned from the biochemical reactions taking place in living cells and information processing in nature.

One of the effects of climate change is the phenomenon of desertification, a process that occurs in semi-arid and arid areas and causes land degradation as well as vegetation loss. Due to the lack of resources, vegetation self-organizes to sustain itself by forming large-scale spatial patterns.

In this dossier you can read about Leiden University’s commitment to sustainability.

An estimated 17% of our university's total carbon footprint comes from the thousands of travel movements by our staff, students, visitors, and suppliers. Our aim is to reduce these emissions by a quarter in the coming years.

The following master research projects are currently open in the Bouwmeester group.

Parents may pass anxiety onto their offspring by exposing them to anxious behaviors in novel situations. Just as the parents’ anxious signals lead to anxiety, parents’ confident signals can ward off anxiety in the offspring. This project is seeking a new way to break anxiety transmission in the family…

Sasse, van Breen, Spears & Gordijn demonstrated an anger gap in response to sexism which was larger for women than for men and found evidence that expressed anger was associated with instrumental concerns.

This thesis describes how complex and real-world relevant analytical solutions can be found starting from a simple Nagumo problem posed on one or two-dimensional lattices.

The mechanism of the electrochemical reduction of dioxygen by a mononuclear pyridylalkylamine copper complex was investigated (see picture). It was shown that in neutral aqueous solution dioxygen undergoes stepwise reduction, wherein hydrogen peroxide plays a key role. The rate constants determined…

Psycho-physiological reactions to stress.

The electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an essential half-reaction for the utilization of hydrogen as a sustainable fuel, via the conversion of hydrogen to electrons and protons facilitated by the ORR. In the most common fuel cells, the ORR is requires high loadings of non-abundant platinum…

Promotor: G. J. Kroes

The main research theme in the group of Dennis Hetterscheid is to understand and mimic bioinorganic multi-electron processes that are relevant to our future energy infrastructure. Reduction of protons generates hydrogen that can be used as a chemical fuel. Alternatively to gaseous hydrogen, the reduction…

In surface science there is great effort to move from studying simple, flat model surfaces in vacuum to investigating more complex model catalysts in gas environments (in situ). This thesis gives three examples of such studies using microscopy and spectroscopy.

Individual molecules are extremely hard to see through feeble fluorescence. Tiny gold nanorods serve as new antennas to intensify their signal 500 times. Publication on 24 February in Angewandte Chemie.

The dissociative chemisorption of a molecule on a transition metal surface represents a rate-limiting step in many heterogeneously catalyzed processes, whereby most chemicals are made. In spite of the importance of this reaction, an accurate first principles approach to modeling it does not yet exist.…