‘In Hong Kong, the elderly found our popular nature routes boring, so they now cycle our action-packed routes through New York.’ What once started as an assignment for the Master Programme Media Technology, has grown into the international market leader in the field of virtual reality exercises for…

Suddenly everyone is at home, but this is not a holiday – far from it. Because work and school are ‘simply’ carrying on remotely. How can parents and children keep a cool head? Lenneke Alink, Professor of Forensic Family Studies, gives her advice.

2020 will go down in the history books as an eventful year. The traces left by the coronavirus this year will remain, for students as well as staff at Leiden Law School. A review of the year in photos and videos.

Astronomer Ignas Snellen studies exoplanets using telescope observations. But how is that possible when all the big telescopes are more or less at a standstill? Luckily, he has contact from home with a robot telescope in Mexico and his WIFI is finally working well.

What if a major world event alters the trajectory of your research project? Tsolin Nalbantian was studying citizenship along the Turkish-Syrian border when the Syrian Civil War erupted and led to a global refugee crisis. While her research participants were forced to flee the region, she was forced…

Maxine David is a lecturer in European Politics in the Institute for History and is a busy bee when it comes to teaching. When countries started locking down due to the corona virus, she was in the United States. After some difficulty getting a flight back to her home country, the United Kingdom, she…

Sarah Michiel is the Institute Manager of NIMAR and has been living in Morocco since 2012. Due to the coronavirus, she has been working in Belgium since 20 March, where she grew up. The NIMAR office in Rabat is currently empty and all visits and conferences have been cancelled. Sarah is trying to run…

Building more in urban areas is, in most places in the Netherlands, the smartest way to tackle the housing crisis. This is evident from research conducted by Janneke van Oorschot, published in a partner journal of Nature. Remarkably, this does not have to come at the expense of green spaces in cities.…

During the New Year’s Reception on 11 January 2022, the Pieter de la Court Medal was awarded to two students of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences: Orestes Kyrgiakis and Claire van den Helder. They tell us about the causes they fight for and what it means for the University to be better.…

The outbreak of coronavirus has radically changed our life and work. We have had to work, teach and conduct research from home. How has coronavirus changed your work? What do you miss most? And what is keeping you going? We asked a few colleagues.

UBL, Leiden University Libraries, is doing all it can to continue to offer its services. Even now the motto is, ‘work from home’. Who is doing want and how are things going?

In Europe, the Netherlands is in middle position when it comes to the placement of children in care. The consequences of such a placement in care are often disastrous, says Mariëlle Bruning.

From treatment plants to hot showers, emissions from water use in the U.S. are equal to 50 million cars driving around for a year. In The Washington Post, staff writer Tik Root consults different experts to learn about ways to reduce our water consumption. He also speaks with Leiden environmental scientist…

Sarah is the latest addition to our team...

Last year Helen Pluut co-authored the article “Social support at work and at home: Dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process” which was published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. This article has now been nominated for the annual Rosabeth Moss Kanter…

At the annual conference FYSICA of the Netherlands’ Physical Society (NNV), Leiden postdoc Scott Waitukaitis has won the Young Speakers Contest.

On the 26th of December 2017, Emeritus Professor Meerten ter Borg passed away. He was 71 years old. Ter Borg passed away at home in the presence of his wife Marlies and their kids. The cremation took place in a select presence of close relatives and friends.

In the Humans of Humanities series, we will do a portrait of one of our researchers, staff members or students, every other week.

The National Chamber of Student Associations (LKvV) launched a coronavirus campaign today: ‘That’s why.’ The campaign was launched together with Ingrid van Engelshoven, Minister of Education. The aim of this national campaign is to get students to follow the coronavirus rules. The virus is still spreading…

A large table with tablecloth, a sitting area with soft lighting. A new meeting place in Plexus for students from a migrant background, opened on 6 October. It's has a homely atmosphere, which is just what these students are looking for.

The first day of the Online Well-being Week covered the topic of your mental health. And more specifically, how to not be too hard on yourself and how you might feel in these weird times.

Now the introduction weeks can go ahead as usual, the new students’ enthusiasm is overwhelming. It’s back to normal for the student associations too, having had a hard time of it during the pandemic.

A new study from Leiden researchers shows that the carbon emissions of building materials are set to grow if we do not act rapidly. Even with known interventions implemented in concert, these emissions are much larger than the remaining 1.5 degree budget for building materials at today’s share, the…

The online summer programme Space in Your Living Room by Leiden Observatory has won the first prize ‘Most Innovative Event’ of the Astronomy@Home Awards from the International Astronomical Union. In July and August 2020, participants could for example talk to real astronauts and imagine life forms in…

Every year Leiden University holds the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture on or around International Women’s Day on 8 March.

With a trip through the Netherlands, the preparations for the graduation of the Master Cyber Security had already started weeks ago. The apotheosis took place on Thursday, the 11th of February. A report of a digital graduation ceremony.

The group structure of Jihadist networks changes rapidly, which makes it difficult to monitor them. This is the finding of research by criminologist Jasper de Bie. PhD defence 14 April.

Proud family members, lecturers and, above all, students congregated in the Van Steenis building on 27 June to celebrate the students' having completed the Preparatory Study Year in Leiden.

How are you doing in these strange and unprecedented times? That is the question we are asking our colleagues in this series. Rosalinde Spitters, for instance, skills lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

Coral reefs throughout the world are under threat. After studying the reefs in Malaysia, Zarinah Waheed concluded that there is room for improvement in coral reef conservation. PhD defence 22 November.

Technological innovations such as home dialysis could significantly improve the quality of life and health of kidney patients. Professor Joris Rotmans therefore wants to continue pushing for new medical technology, as he will explain in his inaugural lecture on 24 March.

Over fifty international students celebrated last Christmas at the homes of staff or students of Leiden University. As part of the Holiday Hosting Programme, the students were invited for Christmas dinner.

Children and young people who are victims of emotional abuse at the hands of their parents often report the symptoms of severe post-traumatic stress. These are generally even worse than after other forms of child abuse, such as physical abuse. These are the results of research by Leiden psychologists,…

Preventie, signalering en opsporing van seksuele uitbuiting van jongeren kan effectiever via buren, klasgenoten en andere mensen uit hun sociale leefomgeving. Dit volgt na onderzoek van universitair docent Ieke de Vries in samenwerking met het Centrum Kinderhandel en Mensenhandel (CKM).

'Getting used to things, doesn't necessarily mean it's getting easier. That's why we're incredibly impressed by what everyone has accomplished.' How do our institutes stay connected and motivated? Lenneke Alink (Pedagogical Sciences) and Ed Noijons (CWTS) share how pub quizzes and who's who games, new…

From 2-4 November Jorrit Rijpma taught the students of the Master in European Law at the European Public Law Institute in Athens.

The Dutch Government would like to allow QR checks at work. Legal experts expect that employees who refuse could be dismissed.

Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker will retire on 8 February. If there’s one theme running through his career, it’s the links between the University and society. In this series of pre-retirement discussions, Stolker will talk one last time to people from within and without the University. In this edition…

It’s the middle of the academic year, but most of the University buildings are closed – something that hasn’t happened since the Second World War. Fortunately, after a week of intensive preparations, the teaching has moved online. How is the Central Crisis Team steering the University through the corona…

In the late colonial Netherlands Indies, starting from 1892, homes were set up for the re-education of children. At first by private individuals, later by the government. Much later still, privately funded institutions existed alongside government-funded ones. Annelieke Dirks’ defence on 23 June 201…

The students at Leiden University are satisfied with the online teaching that they received in the second semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. They were more satisfied with the teaching that imparted knowledge than with the teaching that focused on applying knowledge. These are the results of a…

Our lecturers had just a week to convert their lessons into online formats. It was an enormous challenge because by no means everyone at Leiden University was involved in online teaching. Professor of Korea Studies Remco Breuker has found that doing everything on line takes a lot more time. 'I've also…

Lecturers had a week to move their courses online. An enormous challenge because remote teaching definitely wasn’t commonplace at Leiden University. Suzan Verberne, a lecturer and researcher at LIACS, shares her experiences. ‘I tried to do too much in my first week working from home.’

A packaging-free shop, small mobile homes, solar panels on all Leiden's roofs… Jeroen Schrama, alumnus of Public Administration, is a creative world improver. ‘If we really want to save the world, we have to make much more radical choices.’

For many Indonesian alumni, studying in Leiden or The Hague was a life-changing experience. This is what they told a delegation from Leiden during its recent visit to Indonesia. On their return to Indonesia, some of these alumni set up the Ikali alumni network. But why did they go to Leiden in the first…

The SpaceEU project, coordinated by Leiden University, has launched an online toolkit with a collection of space-centred activities that engage people with the wonders of space. The toolkit is targeted at girls and underrepresented communities and can be used by schools, youth centres, museums, NGOs…

One of the ambitions of the Learning@LeidenUniversity vision on teaching and learning is to foster an international and inclusive educational community in which everyone feels welcome, regardless of religion, sex, sexual orientation or cultural background. One student service that promotes inclusion…

Brand-new professor Gerard van Westen works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and drug development. For the new chair in Artificial Intelligence and Medicinal Chemistry, he uses computer models to make drug development more efficient. Our ultimate goal is a virtual human which allows you…