When and how commenced the use of fire by early humans? Armed with stones, peat moss, and fungi, archaeologist Andy Sorensen tries to answer that question. In the February edition of the Dutch language version of National Geographic Magazine his research features in the section The Discovery.

The Centre for Global Heritage and Development has been successful in applying for a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on the topic of threatened heritage at ICTO, the platform for innovation and education at Leiden University.

Ayo Adedokun, Assistant Professor at Leiden University College The Hague (LUC), was one of the four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year Prize for 2022. The National Prize is an annual event organized by the Dutch National Students Association (Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg, ISO), and the…

On 14 June 2020, Maartje van der Woude was invited to participate on NPO Radio 1 to talk about extra controls at borders to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus.

An international team of researchers with Pascale Ehrenfreund from Leiden University has discovered that the dust particles of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko are made up of even smaller particles. This discovery confirms that clumps of dust form the basis for comets and planets.

Leiden University has started the sustainable demolition of the old LCP building of the Faculty of Science.

Assistant professor Fenneke Sysling spoke in National Geographic about the return of the ‘Java Man’ to Indonesia.

How dangerous are AI tools, such as chatGPT? Media Technology researchers Max van Duijn and Tom Kouwenhoven explain the potential dangers of AI for EenVandaag national news outlet. "We must develop a critical view for applying such tools."

Historian Eric Storm of Leiden University discusses Donald Trump’s foreign policy in BBC Brasil.

From 1 December 2019, Miguel John Versluys, Professor and Chair of Classical & Mediterranean Archaeology at the Faculty of Archaeology, will join the Supervisory Council of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden (RMO).

All countries have turned into a global no-go zone and in the Covid-19 crisis flying citizens back home is an unprecedented logistical operation. More hidden from view is that helping people is one thing, but getting through to an elusive public with the objective of inducing behavioural change, is…

A new report on admissibility under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on a Communications Procedure (OP3) has been published.

How was the future United Nations Organization promoted to global publics during WW II?

On 14 April, the National Growth Fund awarded million euros in grants to two consortia in which Leiden's science faculty is involved. Pharma-NL will receive 80 million euros and Oncode-PACT 325 million euros. Pharma-NL wants to make medicines available to the patient faster and more sustainably. Oncode-PACT…

Developmental psychologist Yung-Ting Tsou's research is part of the Breaking the Cycle project. This project of the Focus on Emotions lab at Leiden University uses sensor technology to capture children’s social networks and dynamics during school breaks. Congratulations, Yung-Ting, with the wonderful…

Dr. Eduard Fosch-Villaronga from eLaw collaborates with researchers from the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi) and University of Delhi (DU) in an effort to explore and reflect upon the potential legal, ethical and pedagogical challenges of deploying a social robot in…

What role(s) do border officials play in the enforcement and management of border control and border mobilities and how do these roles relate to the personal, organisational and larger societal context within which these officials operate?

A new website has been set up that provides information about the government funded Law Sector Plan in the Netherlands, including the plans of the participating universities and developments within the agreed themes.

The European Commission published new plans on artificial intelligence on 19 February. According to Holger Hoos, professor in Machine Learning at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), Bart Verheij (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) and Jeroen van den Hoven (Technische Universiteit Delft)…

Academics regularly face threats, intimidation and abuse. The Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) therefore launched the WetenschapVeilig platform on 7 November 2022.

From Caspar Reuvens to the royal grave in Oss, and from ancient images in the Hortus to a table from Naturalis. The National Museum of Antiquities is 200 years old, and throughout this whole period there have been close contacts between museum and university. Curator Annemarieke Willemsen explains this…

What defence strategy should the Dutch government adopt for the next four years? Our experts advise investing in social resilience, strengthening ‘soft power’ and integrating defence awareness into education.

Roberto Arciero is part of RESPIRE project (Research Educational and Storytelling Project in Italian Remote Ecosystem), an international and interdisciplinary research team led by Martina Capriotti (University of Camerino) that received the National Geographic Meridian grant. Among the different topics,…

As many as 3,472 students from the Faculty of Humanities have filled in the National Student Survey (NSE) in the spring of 2021. This represents a 46% response rate, which is considerably higher than previous years. The results will help study programmes and the faculty to work on what is going well…

In a new Transforming Society article, Salvador Santino Regilme, Associate Professor and Chair of the International Relations Program at Leiden University, critiques the Trump administration’s US–China tariff war as a covert instrument of domestic class warfare.

Say biodiversity loss, and then say humanities. These two terms may not seem an obvious combination, but alumnus Simone Scholte explains that her Film and Literary Studies degree actually offers a unique perspective on the problem. She is therefore one of the 20 students participating in this year’s…

The end of October will be all about the United Nations (UN). The festivities for the 75th anniversary have been scaled down due to the corona virus. 'A shame', says Prof.dr. Alanna O'Malley, but at the same time she sees that corona crisis also offers opportunities for the UN.

This HJD Forum will look at how the architecture of diplomatic missions reflects both how countries see themselves and their role in the world and how they want other countries and their citizens to see them.

During the corona pandemic, the Chinese government's digital communication with its citizens changed. Hard propaganda was increasingly replaced by ‘soft news’. PhD candidate Dechun Zhang mapped the developments in digital society.

Minister Dijkgraaf (Education, Culture and Science) has appointed Ionica Smeets and Alex Verkade as coordinators of a new national centre for science communication. The centre will foster a dialogue between researches and society and will gather and share expertise to make science communication more…

Moritz Jesse, associate professor European Law at the Europa Institute Leiden, delivered a lecture on the Social integration of third-country nationals.

In Dutch nature, plant species that depend on pollination by insects are disappearing. Environmental scientist Kaixuan Pan shows this after analysing 87 years of measurements from more than 365,000 locations. Several national and international media reported on the study results. Below is an overview…

Master student Marie Weijler is included in the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Besides her studies, she also works full-time. How does she combine this and how did she also manage to get on the Forbes list?

Alumna Nadia Kadhim started in 2017 as a corporate lawyer implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at one of the companies where she volunteered. By late 2022 she had received both a Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Award and was on the Forbes 30 under 30 list with her legal start-up…

What Accounts for the Variety of National Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Europe?

On 7 November 2018, Catherine Harwood defended her thesis 'Navigating Between Principle and Pragmatism: The Roles and Functions of Atrocity-Related United Nations Commissions of Inquiry in the International Legal Order'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. L.J. Van den Herik and Prof.…

PhD defence

The Young Alumni Network (YAN) organised a working visit to the National Museum in Amsterdam on Thursday 5 July. Alumni were able to take a look behind the scenes at the Museum and the excursion ended with an exclusive tour.

On Wednesday 22 July, Professor Maartje van der Woude will hold a webinar for Nusantara University (Indonesia). Her lecture is entitled ‘Governing Through Crises: Civil Liberties Under Pressure’.

How can the support for a collaborative approach to global challenges be increased, in times when international organisations’ capacity to act is under threat? Gisela Hirschmann (Leiden University) and Cornelia Ulbert (University of Duisburg-Essen) suggest a number of options.

The book 'The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child' is the result of the international academic conference – ’25 Years CRC’ – which was held in November 2014 in Leiden on the occasion of the 25th birthday of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Money worries can vary from person to person and be about different things: for instance, energy bills, healthcare costs or household spending. The new National Money Worries Monitor wants to gain more insight into the money worries and financial vulnerability of the Dutch population.

On 19 September 2023 Tabitha Speelman successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

What makes some international organisations more likely to succumb to crises where others manage to survive or even thrive? And what can international organisations do to become resilient and withstand existential challenges? Political Scientist Gisela Hirschmann (Leiden University) studied the example…

In a newly published article in East Asia Forum (Australian National University), Salvador Santino Regilme, reflects on the global significance of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

In an article for East Asia Forum, University Lecturer Vincent Chang sheds light on China’s ambition to globalise its pantheon of national heroes.

The Dutch National Research Agenda announced today that it will provide 17 research projects with a total of 61 million euros in funding. Researchers from Leiden University or the Leiden University Medical Center are involved in five of the projects. All of the projects are interdisciplinary partnerships…