A flu virus could cause a pandemic. And then we would be poorly armed because flu viruses are starting to become resistant to flu medications like Tamiflu. Chemist Merijn Vriends successfully worked on an improved version of such medications. He will be awarded his doctorate on September 12th.

After a promising start, also the second pilot of the digital Brightspace skills platform is a success. Third-year bachelor students had thirty new skill modules at their disposal to support them with their research assignment. Despite the additional challenges posed by COVID-19, students that used…

Does gravity work the same when you look at the largest scales in our universe? That’s what Leiden physicist Alessandra Silvestri will study with a 2 million euro ERC Consolidator grant. ‘We assume that it does, but we don’t actually know.’

From bedtime stories about mathematics to podcasts about microplastics and games on weeds: master students from the Science Communication & Society track presented the real-life products they developed during their final presentations on 20 December. Many of the products are already implemented by c…

Fake news a new phenomenon? Not according to Rens Tacoma and Indira Huliselan. In an NWO project, the associate professor and PhD student will delve into the twisting, scheming and tampering with facts that went on thousands of years ago.

On 1 September 2017, Aurelie van ’t Slot passed the assessor’s baton to Olivier Fajgenblat. As the new Humanities assessor, this third-year student of Film and Literary Studies will promote students’ interests in the Faculty Board. Let’s introduce this ambitious Belgian student.

This academic year Martijn Manders taught the course of Maritime Archaeology and cultural heritage management for the 8th year. Manders tries to make his students understand how humans and water are related and most importantly: what part does heritage management play in the discipline? To try and make…

Every week, Uwe Hensch walks past the Old Observatory in Leiden. In corona times, he decided to make a LEGO design of the historic building. His design is now finished and might go into production. You can help to make it happen.

A report by Casper Stubbé, a Master Industrial Ecology Student, about the debate between minister Timmermans of European affairs and students of Leiden University on climate politics on the upcoming climate conference in Copenhagen

University lecturer Steven Lauritano has been awarded a Comenius Teaching Fellow grant. Lauritano will use the grant of 50,000 euros to improve hybrid education in classes featuring particular objects.

Put two single people in one place and what do you get? Science! Psychologists at Leiden University will be conducting research on human attraction at the Lowlands festival on the 19th of August.

On behalf of its students and staff, the Executive Board of Leiden University would like to express our condolences to all those affected by last Friday’s earthquake in Morocco. We would also like to offer support to all students and staff who have family or friends in the area. In the meantime, several…

Young academics often face uncertainties in their academic careers. It is for precisely this reason that Leiden postdocs recently united in a representative body. The Leiden University Postdoc Assembly (LUPA) wants to be a positive force for change, says Eduard Fosch-Villaronga.

In February 2015 Lauren Lauret started her PhD project titled 'Meeting practices of the Dutch States General and the continuity of the early modern world of the political (1780-1848)' at the Institute for History, supervised by prof. H. te Velde.

Since the beginning of September, Emma van der Plas (20) is the new student ambassador for CADS. Emma is a third-year student and is currently following a minor in Sustainable Development in Leiden. Her goal? To eliminate the stigmas surrounding anthropology.

What do you do when you never got the chance to sign your name in the Sweat Room after graduation? Alumni Brantly Hancock and Kent Moore from the U.S. emailed the alumni officer with a request and came back to Leiden two years after graduation, to finally sign: “It’s a good feeling!”

The adventure of iGEM Leiden has come to an end. The result: prizes for Best Therapeutic Project and Best Model, a gold medal, a successful crowdfunding campaign and of course their open-source research findings, which are available for the scientific community.

With her debut album ‘Itaala’, the multicultural Shishani & The Namibian Tales are taking the Dutch music scene by storm. The album, which was crowned by Mixed World Music as the best Dutch World Music Release, merges different musical traditions to create an unprecedented new genre. Shishani Vranckx,…

Which molecules go into forming planets? PhD candidate Christian Eistrup and his colleagues have created new models to research this question. Their findings could change our idea of which molecules were forming Jupiter or even Earth.

In 2019, Federico Cappadona was one of the first students to enroll in the new master’s specialisation Applied Archaeology. He recently graduated and he is happy to share his experience.

A permanent job or start your own company? After her studies in English Language and Culture and History, Anna Visser (28) was faced with this exact choice and chose the latter. She started working as a freelance translator. How did this go and how did her studies benefit her?

Gert Renkema vertelt ons meer over het proces en de gang van zaken rondom de financiën van FGGA.

Dr Bleda Düring deemed it was time for an archaeological approach on the imperialisation of Assyria. ‘While there are lot of archaeological studies of Assyrian sites, they are not really trying to address this broader picture of imperialism and how this imperialisation actually worked.’ These imperialisation…

After years of hard work, Urban Studies graduates were presented with their diplomas. How do they look back on their studies? And what can we expect from them in the future?

To celebrate the end of the semester the Science and Humanities Buddy Programme organised a barbecue together, which has become a small tradition. The barbecue marks the third co-organised activity between the two Programmes and helps to bring international and Dutch students together. The Buddy Programme…

Jamie Korporaal, who started as a junior lecturer at Leiden Law School during her master's studies and has now joined the faculty as a lecturer, will start the Labour Law specialisation after the summer. She discusses her career and this postgraduate training course with Marije Schneider, lecturer in…

Do you often feel drained after a day at the office? The new SPS Monitor measures how sensitive you are to various stimuli. Psychologist Véronique de Gucht developed the questionnaire. 'I want to demystify high sensitivity.'

The Leiden municipality wants to make the city centre climate-proof and combat heat stress by greening it. But they want to do this in a way that does justice to the city’s heritage. Researcher Fenna IJtsma delves into historical greenery to offer inspiration.

After many years of preparations, CERN has approved a groundbreaking new experiment: the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP). Physicist Alexey Boyarsky was involved from the start. ‘We know there is physics that’s missing and we aim to find it.’

A banker who puts making money second and makes a profit nonetheless. A farmer who stops ploughing and using insecticides but still has a good harvest. A new white paper by Leiden-Delft-Erasmus and Naturalis Biodiversity Center shows how the meeting of disciplines provides solutions to climate change…

Her part-time job as a city guide in Dordrecht opened Lotte Hamm's eyes: not business administration, but history was her dream study. This semester she starts her bachelor's degree.

We catched up with Annette Righolt, Honours College coordinator at FGGA, about a grant, a new course and the new year.

On November 1st, 2024, professor Johan Kuiper will retire and be appointed as emeritus professor at Leiden University. Since November 2008, Johan Kuiper was professor of Therapeutic Immunomodulation in the division of, at that time, Biopharmaceutics (which later on became the division of BioTherapeutics)…

The cumulative index contains a list of all the editorials, articles, case notes published in each volume by subject ever since publication started in 1963.

Michiel Hogerheijde will be the new Programme Director of the bachelor Astronomy starting 1 October. The appointment is for four years. Hogerheijde succeeds Harold Linnartz who has held the position since 2018.

Starting from September, the four Dutch mathematics clusters DIAMANT, NDNS, GQT and STAR will each be given 1 ME from NWO Exact Sciences, to be spent within a period of two years.

It is time for the fifth lecture in the series Manuscript Mondays. We shall have two speakers. Jesse Keskiaho (University of Helsinki, Finland) will start with a talk about the soul. In the second talk Evina Steinova will tell us more about the medieval encyclopaedia. The talks will be followed by a…

In June 2024, the University of Groningen organizes a summer school, titled "Things that Matter". The Summer School explores challenges in digitizing source materials, questioning distinctions between physical and digital copies. It delves into the impact of virtual collections and criteria for digitization,…

Why should you talk to your computer? When children start learning how to read, they do so by using their voice and speaking the words out loud. In this lecture for the University of the Netherlands, Felienne Hermans (Leiden University) explains how speaking a computer code out loud can help children…

In an interview with Sveriges Radio, Sweden’s national radio station, Jorrit Rijpma, Professor of European Law, spoke about European legislation concerning migration.

As from 1 February, prof. Adriaan Bedner will be the new Head of Department of the VVI.

KOG, PDLC and Lipsius will soon be welcoming vegetarian cafés

This interview features Drs. Peter Bisschop (Leiden University) and Yuko Yokochi (Kyoto University) and their work on the monumental Skandapurāṇa project.

‘Equal opportunities for diverse young people’ receives a Starting Incentive of the Natonal Science Agenda of 2,5 million euros. In this project research is conducted on the processes and mechanisms in the changing environments in which young people grow up that contribute to equal - or unequal - opportunities.…

The yearly Oortlezing, in the memory of the famous Dutch astronomer, is organized by the Stichting Het Jan Hendrik Oort Fonds and Leiden Observatory. This public lecture is always about a current astronomical topic and is meant for a broad audience that is interested in astronomy. The public lecture…

Over the last couple of weeks, the opening of the Schouwburgstraat building during the weekends turned out to be a great success. Therefore, the opening hours will be extended. Starting Saturday 30 May 2015, the Schouwburgstraat building will be open from 10.00 to 23.00 hrs. on Saturdays and Sunday…

After many years, Peter Hamersma will retire and resign as Programme Director for the BSc Molecular Science & Technology. His successor is Volkert van Steijn, who will start this new challenge per September 1st.

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.

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Prof. Dr. Wil Roebroeks has been elected as recipient of a Humboldt Research Award after having been nominated for this award by the German scientist Prof. Dr. Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Universität Mainz / Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz.