December marks the 15th anniversary of the Dual PhD Centre (DPC). Director Johannes Tromp and associate professor Mark Dechesne look back and ahead. Dechesne: ‘The DPC forms a 'community of knowledge' in which science and society are connected.’

In August 2022 we welcome our new colleague Dr Letty ten Harkel as Assistant Professor in Roman and Post-Roman Archaeology. For the past ten years she has built up an impressive track record in the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford. Read the interview about her background and research…

Alumni event

Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life.

Veelgestelde vragen privacy en security

As a strategy and international security specialist, Julien Bastrup-Birk (41) has advised both NATO and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and worked at the UK Foreign and Defence ministries. Next week, he will defend his PhD on clandestine non-state power in the international system.

Of je nu appt, online nieuws leest, of door Instagram scrolt, jouw gedrag wordt gemonitord. Sterker nog: wát jij ziet, wordt door anderen bepaald. Promovendus Aleksandre Zardiashvili onderzocht de impact van online advertenties en de macht van de bedrijven erachter.

More severe droughts that will also last longer: this will primarily be a problem for irrigated croplands, as discovered by environmental scientist Qi Chen. Mixed forests with a variety of plant species will be the least vulnerable. Chen compared the effects of drought on different ecosystems across…

Genes predict whether you have a propensity for an illness but environmental factors often have the last word: nutrition, air pollution, lifestyle, stress. The exposome as both culprit and chance. Large-scale research is being carried out into this at Leiden. Thomas Hankemeier, Professor of Analytical…

Eiko Fried, associate professor of clinical psychology, comments in Leisure Management on new research showing that consumer smartwatches cannot distinguish between stress and excitement. He stresses these devices are lifestyle gadgets, not medical instruments, and warns consumers against overestimating…

University ceremony

What effect do trends in the art world have on the formation of museum collections? University lecturer Martin Berger wants to answer that question in his research within the Museums, Collections and Society project, which asks ethical questions about the origin of collections.

How adolescents perceive parenting is related to their mood. Differences between the perspectives of parents and adolescents are also of importance for adolescents’ mood. That is what research by Loes Janssen and her Leiden University colleagues in Clinical Psychology shows. Open Access publication…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is often portrayed as a technological saviour for addressing climate change. But there are risks associated with its use, observes Barrie Sander.

Annually, the Dutch Palynologische Kring invites nominations for the Florschütz Award for best MSc thesis in Palynology and Palaeobotany. This year, the thesis of Archaeology alumna Oda Nuij was deemed to be the best one. Oda was surprised to hear she won, since she was not sure that the thesis would…

Hunter-gatherers acquire their food through complex gender-specific foraging techniques for a relatively stable and diverse supply of energy. New research indicates that this specialisation by boys and girls starts at a very young age. Most likely, this enabled the human species to evolve much larger…

‘Space Antenna LISA will open an unprecedented window on the Universe,’ says astronomer Elena Maria Rossi. The mission will be the first one to detect Gravitational Waves from space. These can tell us more about the beginning of our Universe and the formation of black holes. With an NWO grant of twelve…

Researchers have discovered the most distant Milky-Way-like galaxy yet observed. Dubbed REBELS-25, this disc galaxy seems as orderly as present-day galaxies, but we see it as it was when the Universe was only 700 million years old. This is surprising since, according to our current understanding of…

Cosmologists can measure with increasing precision how the universe is expanding and changing. This is producing unexpected results and causing cracks in our picture of the universe. At the ESOF session The Dark Side of our Mysterious Universe, cosmologists, astronomers and philosophers will discuss…

In the next decades, thousands of wind turbines will be added to the North Sea. Environmental scientist Chen Li identified the most beneficial areas for their construction, focusing on material use, carbon footprint, and environmental impact. His paper was published in Environmental Science & Techno…

In the ‘Educatips’ column, Psychology lecturers share their most important insights about teaching. This month, Joanne Mouthaan and Anna Hudson talk about an AI chatbot they are developing with which students can practise their suicide prevention skills. ‘It’s not really feasible to use actual people,…

How has evolution shaped our curiosity? And how does that curiosity ensure that we now have the technological ability to discover whether we are alone in the universe? This was all covered during the celebration of Leiden University’s 449th Dies Natalis.

Lecture, LIAS After-Lunch Talk Series

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of our former colleague dr. Karin Willemse, who passed away on Saturday 18 March 2023.

Conference, Leiden-Birmingham Lectures

Lecture

Lecture, Sociolinguistics & Discourse Studies Series

Wouter Weeda became the new scientific director of the Institute of Psychology in December. But he is also a football coach, bass player in the Thursday Evening Band and chairman of the National Magic Association. Get to know Wouter in 13 minutes.