Frank Chouraqui has been appointed as Director of Education at the Intsitute of Philosophy as from 1 January 2019. His mission is to maintain the quality of teaching, job satisfaction for all colleagues and a fulfilling student experience for all students.

What does Leiden physicist Wolfgang Löffler think about the award of the Nobel Prize for physics to Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland?

Of this year’s four NWO Spinoza Prizes, two have been awarded to Leiden researchers. On 12 September, Eveline Crone and Michel Orrit received their prizes, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. The Spinoza Prize carries an award of 2.5 million euros.

Academics increasingly face threats, intimidation and abuse. The WetenschapVeilig platform has been launched to address this. Academics who are being threatened or intimidated can seek help from the platform 24 hours a day. It’s good that we now have this platform. But at the same time, it’s awful that…

At a meeting in The Hague from 20 to 22 March, lecturers, university administrators and online teaching specialists made plans for better teaching using technology. Leiden University organised the meeting and launched a successful new element: the research track.

ESA’s Gaia mission has produced the richest star catalogue to date, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars and revealing previously unseen details of our home Galaxy.

After one bachelor’s and two master's theses, Fenna IJtsma knew for sure: she wanted to do a PhD. Her thesis supervisor warned her about the high workload. In the 'Twijfeltraject' (PhD: to do or not to do) podcast, published by Mare, IJtsma explores with Mare editor Susan Wichgers whether a PhD track…

How do I get into this hard-to-reach classroom with my wheelchair? How do I learn to divide my time better over the courses I’m taking? Can I take an exam on my laptop? These are all questions with which students have approached Jaap de Witte. For several years now, he has been a study adviser for students…

The Sustainability Monitor 2024 reveals that Leiden University has again taken significant steps to become a more sustainable and future-proof university. Since 1990, its carbon emissions have decreased by 50 per cent and, compared with 2019, its natural gas consumption has dropped by 32 per cent. Its…

A delegation from the University of Edinburgh recently visited Leiden University to deepen their collaboration. What makes Edinburgh such an attractive partner?

Around 15% of all Dutch people say they can't distinguish between left and right. People taking their driving test regularly take wrong turns and arguments flare up because that all-important turn is missed on the way to the camp site. Researchers in Leiden and Utrecht are trying to find out what's…

The Choose a Language Day was created to make high school students enthusiastic about choosing a linguistic profile and further education. Third-years were able to learn about different language studies at the Faculty of Humanities.

Young transgender people are able to decide together with their parents on a reversible intervention with puberty blockers. These are the results of a study by LUMC Curium and Amsterdam UMC of 74 young people undergoing treatment. Ninety percent of the young people studied proved able to make an informed…

In the Leiden Municipality Challenge, 25 students investigated how Leiden could become more sustainable. In doing so, they enlisted the help of the city's citizens. 'When citizens themselves participate in the research process, they have a better understanding of how science works.'

Leiden Professor of Translational Rheumatology Hans Ulrich Scherer has one foot in the clinic, where he helps patients, and the other in the lab, where he supervises researchers. He bridges these two worlds in his hunt for autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Together with 4 other students and ENGIE, Hein Laterveer, a Public Administration student, won the Rotterdam100, a talent contest for young entrepreneurs with ideas for the ‘Next Economy’. The Dutch winners travelled to Singapore for the international final. Hein talks about this special trip and educational…

Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Leiden University and Philips are jointly receiving over 2 million euros from NWO to set up an artificial intelligence (AI) lab. The aim of this lab is to accelerate and improve MRI scans with AI. This is great for patients, and it helps make MRI more accessi…

Around ten per cent of students have some form of functional disability, varying from ADHD or dyslexia to a physical handicap. Under a UN treaty, the Netherlands is obliged to provide better facilities for these students. What does Leiden University do for this group? Watch the video on Studying with…

Ms. Kollmann, a home care worker in the Netherlands, is demanding pension and unemployment benefits from the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (UWV). An exception in the law means that home carers working for private individuals are not automatically entitled to benefits under social security schemes.

The Netherlands eScience Center has announced to fund a new Path-Finding Project led by Dr. Dorothea Samtleben from the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION). This project aims to make the processing of detection signals more efficient for the KM3NeT neutrino telescope, which is currently under construction…

After studying Life Science and Technology, David Louwrier conducted his PhD research at LUCAS about bioart and societal debates around biotechnology. Now that his PhD thesis has been submitted, David is developing educational material about the societal aspects of the biobased economy.

In their quest for materials that conduct electricity without resistance at moderate temperatures, scientists usually work on their chemical make-up. Now Leiden physicists have come up with a radically new approach: pinching holes in a periodic pattern. Publication in SciPost.

On November 12, dean prof. Willem J.H. Willems was elected as one of the twelve members of the European Union’s academic committee Joint Programming Initiative Cultural Heritage and Global Change.

Dr. Philippe van Gruisen, Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at Leiden University, is shortlisted for the Els Witte Prize 2019 for the best doctoral dissertation of the Netherlands and Flanders.

Although he works for the Deloitte international management consulting firm, Robin Bergman identifies himself as an "artist, designer and researcher". He is fascinated by technology and nature, and the tensions that exist between them.

Leiden University occupies the 95th place in the QS World University Ranking, making it the fourth Dutch university in the Ranking. In 2014 Leiden was in 75th position. However, a radical new measuring method makes comparison with previous years problematic.

One of the largest roofs at Leiden University, that of the Snellius building, has recently been equipped with 590 solar panels and 57,000 sedum plants, making it the largest combined roof in the Benelux. The roof was officially opened on Monday 10 October by Annetje Ottow and Martijn Ridderbos, President…

‘One lecturer stood out in particular,’ said Dirk van Vugt, Chair of the Leiden University Student Platform (LUS), at the opening of the academic year. ‘Despite the hurdles of remote teaching, she managed to inspire her students with the aid of knowledge clips, challenges and topical lectures about…

The Republic of Indonesia celebrated its 75th Independence Day on 17 August 2020. As a gift to celebrate this, on the initiative of a group of Leiden alumni*), a biography will be written of Leiden and Indonesian scholar Hoesein Djajadiningrat.

Preventing or delaying disease often requires lifestyle changes, which turns out to be difficult. Valentijn Visch and Sandra van Dijk are researching how to help people change their behaviour.

Although the weather in the Netherlands will always be unpredictable, June might be the month to say with certainty that the temperatures will be pleasing enough for a ride on your bicycle. Aside from the benefits for your (mental) health, you will also make a positive impact on the environment. Start…

Around seven per cent of children have difficulty learning their mother tongue because they have some form of developmental language disorder (DLD). World DLD Day on 15 October called attention to this disorder. Development psychologist Neeltje van den Bedem explains why this is important.

Terwijl NAVO-landen hun defensiebudgetten fors verhogen, ontstaat ruimte voor start-ups om innovatieve technologie te leveren. De flexibiliteit en snelheid maken hen aantrekkelijk voor defensie, maar de opmars brengt ook risico’s met zich mee, waarschuwt Louisa Handel-Mazzetti, promovenda bij Lucht…

Making friends in a new city can be difficult, which is why the Humanities PopCorner has created the Buddy Programme. The idea is to give international master's students a helping hand in building a social network. Project coordinator Manal Daddah updates us.

February 8 saw the launch of the Medical Delta ‘Sustainable Hospitals’ Interdisciplinary Thesis Lab. The research projects will touch on different aspects of healthcare. The students hope they will be able to offer practical solutions to make hospitals greener.

The standard approach to build a quantum computer with Majoranas as building blocks is to convert them into qubits. However, a promising application of quantum computing—quantum chemistry—would require these qubits to be converted again into so-called fermions. Physicists from Leiden and Delft suggest…

Eliminate violence against women. That is the message of the Orange the World campaign. Leiden University is joining in this year, hence the ‘oranged’ Academy Building and Oude UB.

Every year in February, ninety students who love making music come together in Someren, a town in the Dutch province of North Brabant. Through rehearsals and festivities over ten days, they transform into the latest version of the Dutch Student Orchestra (NSO), which then performs concerts in the Netherlands…

For some it will sound like music to their ears, but for others is may sound less appealing: now the advice on working from home has changed, we can once again go to the office. After a period of working from home, which for some lasted almost two years (with maybe a short break), it can be a big transition.…

Markus Kornprobst writes about managing international crises.

In cities like Leeds, Seoul and Malmö, a museum park is a place for unintentional creativity, unsolicited interventions and unorganised sport. Dutch cities could learn a lot from this. In De Architect, Sander Hölsgens describes how skaters are making public spaces more inclusive.

Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, has been appointed as a member of the complaints committee of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). In performing this (ancillary) position, she will use her knowledge of administrative law, and in particular…

Reijer Passchier universitair docent Staatrecht in Leiden en hoogleraar Digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de Open Universiteit, presenteerde op 11 februari zijn bevindingen over het gebruik van digitale systemen bij de uitvoering van wetten, aan de Vaste Kamercommissie Digitale Zaken,…

Pre-Islamic Arabia was barren, barbaric, and isolated. At least, that's what many Arabic writers and historics argued. Ahmad Al-Jallad debunks this myth. For this, he received the Gratama Science Prize during the opening of the academic year.

Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) in Leiden is a unique interdisciplinary master’s programme, considering topics of freedom, justice and citizenship in the 21st century. Watch this video to learn more about the programme!

Irma Johanna Mosquera Valderrama, principal investigator of the ERC GLOBTAXGOV project and Associate Professor of Tax Law has participated in the T20 task force on Trade, Investment and Tax Cooperation under the Argentinian Presidency. As a member of the task force, she has contributed to the policy…

Companies like Facebook and Google make billions of dollars by selling or using our personal data. The data could be used by many different entities for many different reasons: from universities for research, to brands for creating targeted ads. But rather than just giving their data away to these companies…

The German state of Saxony-Anhalt is set to make recognition of the state of Israel a requirement for becoming a German citizen. However, Peter Rodrigues, Emeritus Professor of Immigration Law, has told Dutch daily newspaper Nederlands Dagblad that introducing a similar measure in the Netherlands would…

Een meerderheid van de Nederlandse gemeenten is inmiddels (te) afhankelijk van Microsoft voor eenvoudige zaken als het emailverkeer. In het AD wijzen experts, waaronder Reijer Passchier, hoogleraar digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU en universitair docent staatsrecht in Leiden,…

The LUGO team is searching for 3 enthusiastic new team members to join us in August 2020. Will you be one of them?