Leer meer over de Master Education and Child Studies tijdens de Online Master's Open Dagen van de Universiteit Leiden.

Who inspired you to see a subject in a whole new light? The Teacher of the Year Award celebrates those who not only share knowledge but also spark curiosity, connect with students, and bring research to life. Meet the finalists for 2025!

PhD defence

Improvements of weak gravitational lensing shape measurements are presented and some used for data analysis.

An international team of scientists including Leiden's Joe Callingham has discovered nineteen red dwarf stars that unexpectedly emit radio waves. The outbursts possibly originate from interaction with exoplanets. The results of the research appear in two scientific publications.

All supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies appear to have periods when they swallow matter from their close surroundings. But that is about as far as the similarities go. That's the conclusion reached by British and Dutch astronomers from their research with ultra-sensitive radio telescopes…

Not everything that comes close to a black hole is swallowed by it. Black holes can also hurl material away, and that chance turns out to be considerably bigger than previously thought. Martijn Oei's accidental discovery and his subsequent research on it earned him a cum laude promotion on 12 Decemb…

Supervisor: S.F. Portegies Zwart Co-Supervisor: A.G.A. Brown

We explored the Universe using weak gravitational lensing, a phenomenon that occurs when light from distant galaxies is bent by the gravitational fields of closer cosmic objects, much like how a lens distorts light.

The US President called upon his European allies to take back IS fighters from their countries. It concerns 800 fighters who were arrested by US troops during the war with IS. Forty of the 800 fighters are Dutch and want to return to the Netherlands.

On Wednesday 9 November, Armin Cuyvers was interviewed on the already infamous UK ‘Internal Market Bill', which was published that day.

Microsoft’s new software VALL-E only has to hear a voice for three seconds to be able to imitate it almost perfectly. You can choose which emotion the voice should use and what it should say. Valerie Frissen, Professor by special appointment of Digital Technology and Social Change at eLaw, and Director…

Arco Timmermans, Professor by special appointment Public Affairs at the Institute Public Administration discussed the proposed fine that is likely to prevent Unilever from leaving the Netherlands.

On Thursday 12 December, the day of the UK general election, Armin Cuyvers was interviewed by BNR Nieuwsradio.

Michiel Luining is a Lecturer at the Institute of Public Administration and is especially interested in Eastern and Central Europe.

Willemijn Aerdts, lecturer at ISGA discusses the warning issued by the MIVD (Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service) to put away your phone when discussing sensitive or private matters.

The Dutch-Japanese made DESHIMA instrument has passed its first practical tests when measuring the distances and ages of distant galaxies. The core of the instrument is a chip the size of two euro coins that measures 49 shades of far infrared light. The developers of the spectrometer publish the results…

More on the Dutch webpage.

De menselijke geschiedenis strekt zich ver uit vóór de tijd waarin de mensen opschreven wat er zoal gebeurde.

Promotores: Arjen Doelman, Jens Rademacher, Max Rietkerk

Promotor: S.M. Verduyn Lunel, Co-promotor: O.W. van Gaans

Promotor: S.M. Verduyn Lunel, Co-Promotor: O.W. van Gaans

Promotor: S.M. Verduyn Lunel, Co-promotor: O. van Gaans

Exhibition

Jordy Bouwman and future Sterrewachter Reinout van Weeren have been awarded a Vidi subsidy to set up or expand their own line of research.

PhD defence

Below thesis archives will be moved shortly (work in progress) to the Leiden Repository. Once this is done, theses submitted by MI students (from 2008 onwards) can be accessed via the Repository and will be removed from this site.

What is our place in the Universe? How did stars, planets, and galaxies form? Could life exist beyond Earth? The minor Our Universe invites you on a journey through space, time, and society. You will explore the scientific story of modern astronomy, the origins of life, and the role of the cosmos in…

With new algorithms and supercomputers, an incredibly detailed radio map of the universe was created. Now astronomers can look at radio data of galaxies with much more precision. This was published in Nature Astronomy by Leiden PhD student Frits Sweijen and colleagues.

OB associations are loose groups of young, massive stars. They constitute the last stage of the massive starformation process, and the context in which new stars are formed.

For centuries astronomers studied the Universe by collecting light. Nowadays, we are living in times of great technological advancements, which allow us to explore our Universe in a new way - though gravitational wave radiation.

Stellar feedback is a crucial ingredient in the evolution of galaxies.

Promotores: Prof.dr. A.G.G.M. Tielens & Prof.dr. L. Kaper (UvA)

One of the most important puzzles in modern astrophysics is the nature of dark matter.

An international team of astronomers has found an unexpected link between dark matter and visible stars in stellar systems. This discovery may even cause us to reconsider our understanding of gravity. They published on their discovery in 'Nature' on 1 October.

Astronomers in Leiden have used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile to produce a new detailed image of the centre of our Milky Way. This allows them to investigate the life of stars in the most extreme region of our galaxy. The Leiden scientists, led by Katarzyna…

The focus of this thesis is how stars like our Sun and planets like Jupiter, Saturn, and Earth are formed.

Promotor: S.M. Verduyn Lunel, Co-Promotores: S.C.Hille, O.W. van Gaans

On 22 June, Anneke Koning defended the thesis 'Return to sender: a multi-method study of guardianship against transnational sexual exploitation of children'. The doctoral research was supervised by Joanne van der Leun, Masja van Meeteren and Johan van Wilsem.

When a physical system possesses symmetries, these are often accompanied by a representation of the symmetry group on a Hilbert space. Group representations on Hilbert spaces have been extensively studied.

Leiden Observatory is the astronomical institute of the Faculty of Science of Leiden University.

They are often referred to as ‘The Oscars of the Natural Sciences’: the Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics. This year, the prize for physics went to the Event Horizon Telescope team, which took the first-ever picture of a black hole. Four Leiden astronomers were…

An unexpected phenomenon in a merger of a cluster of galaxies. An international team of astronomers led by Francesco de Gasperin has witnessed a gas tail of a galaxy, that slowly extinguished, but then lightened up again

SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research is moving. In 2021, the Utrecht branch will settle in South Holland. Assistant professor at TU Delft, Akira Endo leads a project that builds a state-of-the-art instrument for astronomical research. ‘SRON is the key to go from proof-of-concept to a science-grade…

Galaxies in the early universe contain more dust and hidden star formation than previously thought. That's what Ivana van Leeuwen concludes in her PhD research, where she combines data from various telescopes to create a more complete picture.

Arts and culture

The solar system was formed approximately 4.56 billion years ago. Despite the numerous theories that have been developed over the years, the formation and evolution of the solar system still remain unclear.

The Astronomy and Data Science master’s specialisation at Leiden University combines advanced Astronomy courses with relevant courses from the Computer Science programme at Leiden University.