This book explores the return of six outstanding Kandyan artefacts to Sri Lanka by the Dutch government in 2023. It captures numerous reflections of the international interdisciplinary research team that investigated the provenance of these artifacts and the remarkable layered history that the research…

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PhD student Robbin Bastiaansen applies mathematics to get insight in practical problems. By comparing mathematical models with developments in existing ecosystems, he hopes to demystify the process of desertification. His research has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…

On Tuesday 16 April, the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) of Leiden University and the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) organised a panel discussion on the recommendations of the report: ‘Nuclear weapons in a new geopolitical reality’. In this report the AIV recommends…

Inhibiting specific protein production in the human body can serve as a crucial weapon in the fight against Alzheimer's, Eline van Maanen believes. PhD defence 23 November.

Missiles that travel at approximately six thousand kilometres per hour, up to 5 or 6 times the speed of sound. Has Russia used those against Ukraine and how is that possible? In Leiden University’s Dutch video series ‘De Werkplaats’, Danny Pronk, political scientist, security expert, and researcher…

According to Russian propaganda Ukrainians are Nazis and people from the West are Satanists. Egbert Fortuin thinks we should take this propaganda seriously.

In 2007, a spy from the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) planted a destructive computer virus at an Iranian nuclear site, halting the Iranian nuclear weapons programme. Dutch newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’ has revealed that the AIVD kept the crucial role of the Dutch spy a secret from…

To cover up their deportation plans which targeted Polish Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Nazis re-opened schools. In her inaugural lecture, historian Sarah Cramsey demonstrates with examples how care was used ‘as a weapon’ during the Holocaust. She also stresses that care is a unifying cement in society…

After 2.5 years as defence minister, it is time for Kajsa Ollongen to hand over the baton. In front of a packed audience, she gave her farewell speech at Leiden University in The Hague on Tuesday, which included personal lessons and memories, from sleeping on the ground with the prime minister to the…

Over the years, many spectacular archaeological finds have been washed ashore on the Dutch coast. Among these a large assemblage of barbed points made of bone and antler from the Mesolithic (11,000-8000 BC). The species used by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to manufacture their barbed points remained…

At Molecular Physiology we teach the following courses within the Leiden Institute of Chemistry's Chemistry and Life Science and Technology programmes.

Het proefschrift omschrijft de chemische synthese van fenolische glycolipiden van verschillende mycobacteriën met het doel om deze te kunnen gebruiken voor immunologisch onderzoek.

It is one of the most talked-about subjects right now: how do we eradicate sexual harassment and violence? Alumnus Femke Eisma is the spokesperson for Mariëtte Hamer, the government commissioner tasked with tackling this persistent social problem. Eisma studied the Dutch language at Leiden. How is her…

PhD defence

The Faculty of Science has multiple study associations, which organise both study-related and social activities for students.

Your time in Leiden is about more than just studying. Some of your best experiences will come from being part of our vibrant and diverse student community, and from living in the beautiful city of Leiden.

Conference, Seminar

Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have died as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the continuing armed conflict. Many forms of critical infrastructure have been destroyed. Much of this devastation has been caused by weapons that utilise forms of artificial intelligence…

Conference, Seminar

Everything you need to know about the minor Disinformation and Strategic Communication in Global Media.

To assess the impact of illicit firearms trafficking on gun violence, this research looks at the scope, characteristics and contexts of firearm violence, and also the scope and nature of firearms trafficking in Europe since the new millennium. Nils Duquet, Dennis Vanden Auweele and Marieke Liem created…

Bringing together scholars from Russia, the United States and Europe, this collection of essays is the first to explore the slippery phenomenon of post-Soviet nostalgia by studying it as a discursive practice serving a wide variety of ideological agendas.

The term “Lone Actor” has been applied to a variety of violent individuals who are thought to act out of ideological motivations using terrorist tactics.

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Political scientists Huib Pellikaan and Niels van Willigen (Leiden University) use and elaborate on the theoretical insights from game theory in order to understand nuclear security in changing environment. Now that the relations between the US and Russia have deteriorated and smaller nuclear states…

Current clients

During times of domestic turmoil, the use of force abroad becomes an appealing strategy to US presidents in hopes of diverting attention away from internal conditions and toward a foreign policy success.

Time and again synthesised substances have been shown to pollute the environment more than lab tests predicted. In her inaugural lecture on 16 November, professor of Ecotoxicology Martina Vijver gives a warning for the risks of new, man-made chemical substances and nanomaterials. Various media payed…

PhD defence

Thanks to its early civilisation and continuous mix of influences, the Muslim world has a rich and varied culture. The study of material culture, books, stories, films and increasingly television series teaches us about the structure of modern-day Muslim societies.

By carrying out fundamental research and providing excellent education, universities become a breeding ground for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Drawing on the analogical lessons of the Great War, this article uses applied history to analyze how the four parallels discerned can help us make sense of contemporary Sino-American rivalry

This omnibus brings together some old and some recent works by Jos Gommans on the warhorse and its impact on medieval and early modern state-formation in South Asia.

This article describes the phenomenon of firearms violence and the importance of including non-lethal firearms violence in understanding this phenomenon.

Cultural biographies of persons, objects and 'natural' places in the Bronze Age of the Southern Netherlands, c. 2300-600 BC.

This project traces how, why, and under what circumstances scholars invoked the trope of “dogmatism,” especially in controversies. Relevant controversies from various fields, periods, and countries will be subjected to in-depth rhetorical analysis.

Why is there no Northeast Asian security architecture? Assessing the strategic impediments to a stable East Asia. In this article, published in 'The Pacific Review', the authors Wang (Peking University) en Stevens (Leiden University) discuss the reasons why.

Colonial and Global History combines a deep curiosity of transcultural processes such as imperialism, (de)colonization, and globalization with critical historical research on regional societies in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

In this project, we use social network analysis to analyze the behavior of users in online forums and associated marketplaces over time.

Bas Rietjens and his colleagues researched the Russia-Ukraine war, exploring this multitude of facets and their interconnections.

On the 23rd of June Arianna Sacco successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

While self-driving cars and autonomous weapon systems have received a great deal of attention in media and research, the general requirements of ethical life in today’s digitalizing reality have not been made sufficiently visible and evaluable.

From fake news to COVID-19 conspiracies, debates about truth claims have become more prominent during the past decade. Taking a global, comparative perspective, the minor Disinformation and Strategic Communication in Global Media focuses on the broad spectrum of contested narratives subsumed under the…

The Faculty of Archaeology offers a dynamic research environment for PhD candidates. Their projects at the Faculty span all fields in archaeological research, from fieldwork to lab work and heritage issues, from prehistoric to modern times, worldwide.

Chemical reactions go hand-in-hand with an energy exchange with the environment in which they take place. Surfaces offer a variety of energy dissipation channels, constituted by the nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom of the atoms at the interface. Aiming at an improved future harvesting of energy,…

Of the 109 Spinoza Prizes that have been awarded since 1995, 26 have gone to researchers from Leiden University. The NWO Spinoza Prize is the highest Dutch award in science. The younger NWO Stevin grant goes to researchers who have achieved great success in the field of knowledge utilisation for society.…

Your time in Leiden is about more than just studying. Some of your best experiences will come from being part of our vibrant and diverse student community, and from living in the beautiful city of Leiden.