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

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.

Promotor: G. J. Kroes

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 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.…

Climate change and energy transition were an important theme of the Dutch provincial elections: how should we invest in new sources of energy? Leiden University conducts multidisciplinary research into renewable energy solutions. Read more about this in the ‘Renewable Energy’ research dossier.

Lecture

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.

As fruit and vegetables ripen, ethylene gas is released. Ethylene also influences the speed at which they ripen. Chemist Tom van Dijkman studied how small and inexpensive sensors can be made that measure ethylene concentrations during transportation. PhD defence 12 May 2016.

Lecture

Can the conditioning paradigm be used for checkpoint inhibition cancer treatment?

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.

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.

Promotores: Prof.dr. H.J.M. de Groot, Prof.dr. J. Matysik (Universitaet Leipzig)

Promotor: M.T.M. Koper, Co-promotors: A.I. Yanson, L.B.F. Juurlink

In this article Fisher, Klein & Codjo introduce the FOCUSdate Project and they show how the sentiment data provide unique abilities to analyze Russia's and Iran's reactions to US policies and events and NGO human rights campaigns.

A full overview of THEOR PhD theses.

We report new computational and experimental evidence of an efficient and astrochemically relevant formation route to formaldehyde (H2CO). This simplest carbonylic compound is central to the formation of complex organics in cold interstellar clouds and is generally regarded to be formed by the hydrogenation…

Promotor: M.T.M. Koper, Co-promotor: L. Juurlink

Three at the same time: a ligation strategy combining tetrazine–norbornene cycloaddition, Staudinger–Bertozzi ligation, and copper(I)-catalyzed click reaction was used to label the three catalytic activities of the proteasome simultaneously in a single experiment. The orthogonality of the three ligation…

Leiden Professor Marc Koper will be carrying out research on the chemical process underlying tin coating in order to optimise the quality of tin coatings. He has been awarded a subsidy of 285,000 euros from the STW Technology Foundation and Tata Steel.

The nanoscale structure of a catalyst under reaction conditions determines its activity, selectivity, and stability. For the production of sustainable energy and materials, new catalysts are needed. By understanding the structure-activity relationships of catalysts under reaction conditions, insight…

Promotor: P.M. Brakefield

Central in coordination and organometallic chemistry is the synthesis of new chelating ligands, the synthesis and characterization of metal complexes with these ligands, and the study of their properties. An important goal in my research is to create understanding of the relation between the structures…

Financial support that wealthy countries provide to poorer countries in order to help them combat climate change and the associated emissions was the central topic of this year's UN Climate Change Conference in Baku. Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, discussed…

Vast, often populated, areas in dryland ecosystems face the dangers of desertification.

The focus throughout this thesis will be on gathering fundamental studies of the detailed structure and composition of the electrode/electrolyte interface effect on the rate and mechanism of key electrocatalytic reactions.

Platinum is a widely used catalyst, but its precise mechanism largely remains a mystery to scientists. Ludo Juurlink has now demonstrated for the first time how oxygen reacts on the platinum surface. Together with PhD students Kun Cao and Richard van Lent and international colleagues he publishes his…

Lecture

Promotor: E.F. Smets Co-promotor: J. Geml

The Leiden University Green Office has some great news: you can now make the most environmentally-friendly search engine - Ecosia - your default on a public LU computer!

Leiden University is a integral part of the community and contributes to a sustainable society. Over the coming years our University will become even greener.

How the global distribution of vegetation stands dominated by arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal plants relate to principle aspects of belowground carbon accumulation processes?

The world we live in is changing in many aspects at an ever-increasing speed. And it will continue to do so. How do we anticipate these changes, such as the increase in atmospheric CO2, the extinction of species and industrialisation?

This guide relays information on tips and tricks for traveling by train and bus, and which online tools you can use for sustainable travel and trip planning.

Although sexual abstinence before marriage is no longer the central message in The Netherlands the affective relationship as a criterion for professionals within criminal justice can be seen as a more contemporary version of marriage.

This thesis describes the synthesis, analysis of various tetrazine bearing compounds and use in bioorthogonal chemistry.

Atherosclerosis (thickening of the artery wall) is the most common cause of heart attacks or strokes, and one of the most common causes of death in the western world. People with this condition have to take medicine all their lives, so a vaccine for atherosclerosis would be a breakthrough.

The central theme of Rik Mom’s research group is to identify what the electrode-electrolyte interface looks like when electrocatalysis is taking place. Using specialized forms of Raman and X-ray spectroscopy, we study the chemical state and bonding environment of the electrode surface and near-surface…

Research at the MCBIM group is comprised of the following research themes:

The

Lecture

The inverse electron demand Diels-Alder (IEDDA) pyridazine elimination emerged in 2013 as a new bioorthogonal reaction and constitutes a prime example of what is now known as dissociative bioorthogonal chemistry. The research described in this Thesis aims to develop synthetic strategies which enable…

Active-site directed probes are powerful in studies of enzymatic function. We report an active-site directed probe based on a warhead so far considered unreactive.

Promotor: A. Doelman, Co-promotor: V. Rottschäfer

Reactions and reaction times in cognitive tasks.

Promotor: Prof.dr. E. F. van Dishoeck, Co-promotor: A. N. Heays

The word ¨pyroptosis¨ can be understood as ¨fiery falling¨, which describes the bursting of pro-inflammatory signals from the dying cell. Our observations indicate that pyroptosis also ¨spreads like wildfire¨ and once a cell dies via pyroptotic cell death, neighbouring cells are more prone to die as…