PhD defence

In 2023, many of our students and staff won great prizes and secured important research grants.

Rembrandt painted the portraits of more Leiden alumni than we can show in the route. Discover who else posed for Rembrandt.

Who doesn't know him: the world-famous Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. But did you also know that Rembrandt was a Leiden student? In 2019, Leiden University celebrated its 444th anniversary. In that lustrum year, which was also a Rembrandt year, we made the connection between Rembrandt and Leiden…

To gain more insight into the evolutionary development of orchid flowers and fruits, the orchid species Erycina pusilla was studied. The evolutionary origin of the median petaloid sepal, the callus on the labellum, and the stelidia was studied.

Our scientists working with laboratory animals undergo training on animal experiments. In this training, researchers learn how to handle laboratory animals responsibly. Read more about the requirements we set for researchers working with laboratory animals.

Are you interested in the neurocognitive and biological roots of learning, behaviour and emotions in children? If so, the programme in Applied Neuroscience in Human Development might be the specialisation you are looking for.

Entry requirements for students with a degree from a Dutch University of Applied Sciences (HBO)

Medical technology has become an essential part of healthcare. Innovative treatment methods therefore require a new type of medical professional. Someone with medical and technical knowledge, who builds a bridge between technology and patient.

Deadline: 26 June 2026.

This collection of essays explores processes of innovation in Greco-Roman technology and science.

What was the stringed instrument known in medieval and early Renaissance Italy as “cetra”?

Until the 1990s, the only known planets were those in our Solar System. Three decades later, several thousand exoplanets have been discovered orbiting stars other than the Sun, and substantial efforts have been made to explore these strange new worlds through spectroscopic analyses of their atmosphe…

Until recently, the role of external information processing in intelligence has rarely been investigated quantitatively or experimentally. A group of researchers from Erasmus University Rotterdam, Leiden University, GGZ Rivierduinen, and University of Edinburgh measured in a new way how and when people…

Sarah Giest and Annemarie Samuels, both Assistant Professors at Leiden University, researched the quality and coverage of the data being collected for policiymakers to be used, specifically pertaining to minority groups.

Does hegemony—legitimated rule by dominant power—have a role in ordering world politics of the twenty-first century? If so, what form does that hegemony take: does it lie with a leading state or with some other force? How does contemporary world hegemony operate: what tools does it use and what outcomes…

International trade has played a major role in defining the modern global economy. Trade, however, entangles the environmental pressures of economic sectors, giving the illusion of environmental improvements, while the opposite may be occurring.

What was the stringed instrument known in medieval and early Renaissance Italy as “cetra”?

The Faculty of Archaeology's own home-grown journal Inter-Section has released a new volume. Inter-Section offers students and PhD candidates the unique chance to publish in a peer-reviewed journal. The new volume focuses on the materials that shape our world.

Exchanges between different cultures and institutions of learning have taken place for centuries, but it was only in the twentieth century that such efforts evolved into formal programs that received focused attention from nation-states, empires and international organizations.

From the start of the 2017 academic year, students at Leiden University Medical center (LUMC) can study the anatomy and movements of their own ankles in detail via mixed reality using a hologram.

The starting point of Hermans' research is how both children's physical play and dance improvisation by professionals can be considered somatic practices where sense-making manifests itself in and between bodies, and through movement.

The starting point of Hermans' research is how both children's physical play and dance improvisation by professionals can be considered somatic practices where sense-making manifests itself in and between bodies, and through movement.

Leiden Law School has moved up three places in the global ranking of law faculties and is now in 21st place.

Investigating neurobiological endophenotypes of Social Anxiety Disorder

How has early development in R. ocellatus been modified as a result of its parasitic embryonic lifestyle?

The year 2019 is the 444th anniversary of the University’s ‘birth’ and the 350th anniversary of painter, draughtsman and engraver Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). Reason therefore to celebrate both 444 years of Leiden University and Rembrandt Year. But what was the connection between Rembrandt, the most…

Blood, Sweat and Tears: The Changing Concepts of Physiology from Antiquity into Early Modern Europe

An interdisciplinary and innovative research group combining History, underwater archaeology, GIS and wood provenancing methods.

Commagene in its Local, Regional and Global Hellenistic Context

This research aims to study the practice of cremation in Alexandria and Graeco-Roman Egypt, through the examination of its cinerary urns.

Since 1974, World Environment Day has been celebrated every year on 5 June, engaging governments, businesses and citizens in an effort to address pressing environmental issues.

On 10 May 1940, the Netherlands was taken completely by surprise by the attack of the German army. Wasn’t it? In his dissertation, Wouter Linmans debunks the idea that the Second World War took the Netherlands by surprise. ‘From 1935 onwards, all major political parties wanted to invest in the military.’…

Joris Larik was interviewed by BBC World Service radio on the state of Brexit negotiations, the Irish border issue and ongoing Dutch preparation.

America’s dominance of the world stage is coming to an end. These were the words of Professor Amitav Acharya in his guest lecture in The Hague on 5 February. ‘But the world really won’t be plunged into immediate chaos.’

Associate Professor Lettie Dorst has received a Vidi grant to research how machine translation programmes such as Google Translate and ChatGPT translate words and expressions used metaphorically. This still regularly goes wrong, resulting in far too literal, incorrect and sometimes incomprehensible…

ENVIRHUS (Environmental and Rural History of Urbanized Societies) organiseert op 17 februari 2023 (14u-17u) de workshop ‘The Natural World‘.

PhD defence

On August 27 – 31 2019, PhD candidate Maria Vasile participated in the IUAES 2019 Inter- congress in Poznan, Poland entitled "World Solidarities" and shares some of the insights from presentations she attended and found particularly relevant to the Food Citizens project.

World wide press attention for the article and specifically the image of the 30 micrometer long micro boat 3DBenchy by Rachel Doherty, Daniela Kraft and other Leiden physicists.

Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences has done very well in the QS World University Rankings, being allocated a very impressive ninth position.