Emeritus professor at the Natural Products Laboratory, Institute of Biology, Leiden University - the Netherlands

Leiden University has set up two committees to consider issues that are the focus of much attention within our community and society at large. They are the Knowledge Security Committee and the Fossil Fuel Industry Collaboration Committee. Former dean Joanne van der Leun will chair both.

The Dies Natalis for alumni on 11 February was an online event. Almost 1,000 alumni tuned in to Bastiaan Rijpkema’s interview with Annetje Ottow, who had then been President of Leiden University’s Executive Board for all of three days. Alumni are part of her portfolio on the Executive Board.

Lodewijk Govaerts has been appointed by Ingrid van Engelshoven, caretaker Minister of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), as a member of the Board of Governors of Leiden University.

On January 14th the executive Master’s programme Cyber Security started for the second time at the HSD Campus

Het College van Bestuur laat door een postdoc een eenjarig vooronderzoek doen naar het koloniale en slavernijverleden van de Universiteit Leiden.

Ed van den Berg, MBA, will succeed Dirkje Schinkelshoek from 1 September as interim member of the Faculty Board of the Science Faculty, responsible for operational management.

At the request of outgoing minister Stef Blok, the Province of Groningen wrote a letter to support the minister in his rejection of two amendments by the Dutch House of Representatives.

Campus The Hague's Faculty Board has a new member. Mikal Tseggai has passed on the baton to Marlou Grobben, making her this year's faculty assessor. So what exactly does an assessor do? What are Mikal's thoughts as she reflects on the past year and what are Marlou's plans? The two women are more than…

Medewerkers van de Universiteit Leiden trappen maandag 10 maart de estafettestaking af van de Nederlandse universiteiten tegen de kabinetsbezuinigingen.

A high-ranking delegation from China visited Leiden on 6 November. The party of some 25 officials from the CPPCC – a Chinese advisory body comparable with the Dutch Senate - visited the Leiden Observatory, the Hortus Botanicus and the Asian Library.

The Board of Governors of Leiden University is pleased to announce that the outgoing Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Robbert Dijkgraaf, has appointed Professor F.B.J. (Ferd) Grapperhaus as the new Chair of the Board of Governors.

A safe haven for students, more bicultural staff and more powers for diversity officers. In a national expert meeting at Campus The Hague, administrators, diversity officers, students and staff discussed urgently needed measures.

Leiden University contributed to colonialism and slavery through its research and teaching. And governors and residents of Leiden had an active role in colonial networks. These are the findings of two explorative studies presented on 3 April.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas has had a clear impact on Leiden University. Students and staff are angry or scared, feel unsafe and are experiencing group pressure.

Teaching during the corona crisis, the high workload and the challenges faced by the Faculty of humanities. In an online working visit to Leiden University on 12 October, Minister for Education, Culture and Science, Ingrid van Engelshoven, discussed the hot topics of the day with the Executive Board,…

As of 1 April 2025, Lodewijk Govaerts will be standing down from the Board of Governors due to other commitments that will demand a significant part of his time and attention within the foreseeable future. Govaerts does not want this to affect his ability to fulfil his role on the Board of Governors…

Every Sunday you can help fish plastic and other floating garbage out of the Leiden canals. You can use your own canoe or loan one from Plastic Spotter and join the garbage-fishing fleet. Annetje Ottow, President of Leiden University, was one of the crew on Sunday 4 July.

Leiden University and four other Dutch universities will appoint 51 PhD candidates to conduct solution-oriented research for and with the African continent.

The number of insect species is plummeting, which is why the University is creating a more biodiverse environment around its buildings. Annetje Ottow, President of the Executive Board, planted the first bee-friendly plants in the front garden of Oude UB on 20 September.

Starting 1 September, Suzy Sirks-Bong will be appointed as the Director of Operational Management of the Faculty of Humanities Faculty Board. She will succeed Menno Tuurenhout, who has been on the Board since 2015. The Director of Operational Management is responsible for financial management and 'staff…

Students of the minor in Innovation, Cocreation and Global Impact present their idealistic projects. Watch the film!

Today, 13 May 2024, Leiden University’s Executive Board is publishing the advice of the committee that investigated reports of unacceptable behaviour and breaches of academic integrity. These reports were about a professor from the university and their partner (a former member of the university staf…

Cyber Security challenges are dominating the international agendas. Therefore, the Cyber Security Academy (CSA) enthusiastically and proudly announces that on Thursday 18th January a fourth group of 26 professionals from a variety of public and private organisations will start the executive Master’s…

When talking about innovative technologies, Blockchain should certainly be mentioned. In the Honours Class ‘Board the Blockchain Train!’, students learn about the influence of technology on, for example, banking transactions or real estate appraisal.

The Executive Board of Leiden University appointed Dr. Johannes Magliano-Tromp as interim member of the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs with the portfolio Education.

Leiden University is publishing a list giving an overview of its research collaborations with the fossil fuel industry.

Exhibition

This academic year Maxim Allaart will hold the position of assessor within the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Science. The assessor is a student member who represents the students’ interests within the Faculty Board.

The Executive Board of Leiden University reappointed Dr. Johannes Magliano-Tromp from 1 July 2017 as member of the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs with the portfolio Education.

With the new academic year just around the corner, many more students and lecturers will soon be coming to the University. What are we doing to keep our campus safe? We spoke to Martijn Ridderbos, Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board, about the new Campus Protocol, which enters into force on 31 August.…

‘We could share our knowledge more with others and apply it more widely,’ said Annetje Ottow, President of the Executive Board, while presenting the new Strategic Plan on the University’s 447th Dies Natalis. The new Strategic Plan therefore focuses on innovating and connecting, among disciplines and…

A national walkout will be staged on Monday 13 May. Leiden Scholars for Palestine has called on students and staff from Leiden University to meet at 11.00 at the Lipsius building in Leiden and the Wijnhaven building in The Hague.

On 14 September the construction of the Spui university building officially began.

Leiden University's 2017 annual report has now been published. This year for the first time the University has also published a separate sustainability report. Leiden University is the first university to produce a separate report on the progress of its sustainability policies.

A new book about Villa Isola in Indonesia reveals some of the shared history of the Netherlands and Indonesia. The book was presented on Thursday to Annetje Ottow, President of the Executive Board, and Mr Mayerfas, ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia in the Netherlands.

Leiden scientists will be working on the development of a camera for the European Extremely Large Telescope that is currently under construction. On 28 September the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy signed an agreement with the European Southern Observatory.

Over 30 ambassadors strengthened their ties with researchers and university leaders in a recent visit to Leiden University. Cross-border collaboration (both literal and figurative) was the theme of presentations and a tour of the Hortus botanicus.

The Mapping Slavery project will place markers that tell the story of Leiden’s slavery past. Why is this important and what does it mean for today’s society? Before the markers are placed, a panel came together on 24 March to discuss the slavery past of not only the city but the University too.

On Thursday the 30st of June and Friday the 1st of July Vicky Kosta and Vestert Borger participated in the workshop ‘Executive discretion, Public Interests and the Limits of Law’ at the University of Amsterdam. The workshop was organized by Joana Mendes in the context of the research project ‘Unveiling…

‘Culture change takes time,’ said Vice-Rector Hester Bijl at the closing panel of the University’s Diversity Symposium on 26 January. She talked about the road to a diverse and inclusive university. The symposium provided plenty of concrete examples of small steps that can already be taken.

On Monday 28 October, we celebrated the start of Healthy University Week 2019. During this week, students and staff of Leiden University can follow workshops to help them adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Editors are essential for publishing and thereby sharing research findings. They serve the scientific community by editing, leading the peer review process and ensuring a high quality of journal publications. Recently, several researchers from CML joined the Editorial Boards of international scientific…

Jeroen Touwen officially joined the Campus The Hague Board on 28 November.

CWTS will get a new board of directors for the coming three years, starting on 1 January 2024. The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Leiden University has appointed Ludo Waltman as scientific director and Tjitske Holtrop, Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner and Clara Calero Medina as deputy directors.…

The editorial board of the Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference welcomes several new members. The coming months they will be preparing the journal's second issue, to be published in February 2014.

Black-and-white photographs filled with solemn young men and distinguished professors line the walls of the Grand Auditorium. Young women are missing from the photos; women rarely obtained PhDs 50 years ago. And this article is about that group, the PhD candidates between 1966 and 1972, who were invited…

Three new initiatives will provide a more diverse view of Leiden’s academic history, literally and figuratively: a historical study on the background of students and scientists, a new book about the Academy Building, and two new sculptures of female scientists, Ewine van Dishoek, Professor of Molecular…

In March, Jan Pronk starts as the new Executive Director at the Faculty of Archaeology. We sat down with him for an interview on his background, his drive, and his take on archaeology.

Information about the situation in Ukraine