Leiden University is involved with various grants and prizes stimulating initiatives in the field of diversity and inclusion.

Each year, the Leiden University Student Platform (LUS) presents the Leiden Education Prize.

Annually the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology awards the Speckmann prize for the best Fieldwork NL report, as well as the most accomplished master’s thesis.

The Austrian Studies Fund awards a prize and a stipend for talented students of Dutch and Flemish universities: the Hugo Weiland Prize and the Austrian Studies Fund Stipend.

Leiden University regularly confers honorary doctorates, and presents awards and prizes.

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.…

The Leiden Jewish Studies Association awarded the inaugural “Best Thesis in Jewish Studies” in December 2023.

Psychology teacher of the year is Evelien Broekhof. The Master Thesis Awards are for Yanna Naeije and Arian Memarpouri. Mirjam Wever wins the PhD Paper Prize; Jip Aarts wins the PhD Wild Card: Academic Citizenship. Congratulations!

Federica Antoniani is the recipient of the very first MA thesis prize awarded by Leiden University’s Europe Hub. She received the prize for her thesis entitled 'Accounting for Accountability: Europol between Protecting Personal Data and Fostering Innovative Artificial Intelligence for Law Enforcement…

A team including staff from Leiden University won the Open Initiative Trophy on 11 February, a prize for the best open science initiative in the Netherlands. The winners developed Reprohak, a hackathon-like event where participants repeat research to see whether the results were reproducible.

On Thursday 10 January a number of prizes were presented to researchers and students.

Peter Bruin (PhD Leiden, September 2010) has been awarded the Stieltjes Prize for the best mathematics PhD thesis in the Netherlands. The Stieltjes Prize has been awarded each year since 1996.

CML grants three Stans Awards each year, known as the best PhD paper, best student thesis and best outreach from the past year. The CML staff nominated students and colleagues and this year’s jury Helias Udo De Haes and Gjalt Huppes made the final decision.

The ‘Stans Prize 2010’ has been awarded to Leontien Cenin and Lisanne Daniëlle Korpelshoek for their research on impacts of landuse on three migrant harriers in northern Cameroon.

Following the New Year's speech of Dean Hanna Swaab a total of 4 prize winners were showered with praise and flowers during the new year's reception 10 January, 2017. Anthropologist Igor Boog won the Casimir Prize for best lecturer, pedagogue Ilona Schoep the Master Thesis Prize, political scientist…

The ‘Stans Prize 2018' (for the best thesis, report or article produced by a CML student) has been awarded to Louie Krol. Other CML prizes were awarded to Sebastiaan Deetman and Joris Timmermans.

Matheus Mendes was awarded the 12th Jaap Doek Thesis Prize at a ceremony on 13 December 2024 for his thesis on the right to read. The prize honours outstanding master’s theses in children’s rights.

The ‘Stans Prize 2017' (for the best thesis, report or article produced by a CML student) has been awarded to Davide De Mauro. Other CML prizes were awarded to Jeroen Guinee, Reinout Heijungs, Martina Vijver, Willie Peijnenburg en Kevin Groen

Leiden academics research the world around us and pass on their knowledge to future generations. Each with his or her individual expertise and personal fascination for a particular discipline, they are the public face of the University.

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.

Leiden astronomer Xander Tielens has been awarded a Spinoza prize, the highest scientific prize in the Netherlands. Tielens is Professor in the Physics and Chemistry of Interstellar Space. He studies large and complex, often organic, molecules found in interstellar space. The Spinoza prize carries a…

Three Leiden professors have recently been awarded the most prestigious scientific accolade in the Netherlands: Maria Yazdanbakhsh and Marc Koper have been awarded a Spinoza Prize and Judi Mesman a Stevin Prize. They received their prizes on 13 October.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 goes to David Thouless, Michael Kosterlitz and Duncan Haldane for theoretical discoveries in the field of topological materials. Haldane spent part of 2008 in Leiden; he is the 14th Lorentz Professor to win a Nobel Prize.

Neurologist Professor Michel Ferrari has been awarded the Spinoza prize. 'In biomedical research you can only make breakthroughs at the borders between sciences,' according to Spinoza, doctor and scientist. 'This prize is proof that co-operation works.' Together with clinical and fundamental researchers…

The Leiden archaeologist Wil Roebroeks has been awarded the Spinoza prize for his original observations about early hominins and the development of human society, NWO (Netherlands organisation for Scientific Research) announced on Monday 4 June.

Professor Marc Koper researches how you can use electrical energy to make or break chemical bonds. He has just been awarded a Spinoza Prize, the Netherlands’ highest personal science award, for his fundamental research into how this form of electrolysis works.

How can parents avoid passing on stress and mental health problems to their children? Professor of Stress-Related Psychopathology Bernet Elzinga develops simple interventions to help both parents and young people. For her research, she has been awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest academic honour…

Who authored the best theses in Leiden University's Political Science BSc programmes?

The ‘Stans Prize 2016' (for the best thesis, report or article produced by a CML student) has been awarded to Carlos Felipe Blanco Rocha. Other CML prizes were awarded to Henrik Barmentlo, Arnold Tukker and Coen van der Giesen.

Every year, an outstanding lecturer receives the Faculty Teaching Prize. Lecturers are nominated by students and a jury decides who will receive the prize. The prize is awarded during the official opening of the academic year on 8 September. This year, students nominated four candidates. We spoke to…

True to tradition, Professor Joanne van der Leun, Dean of Leiden Law School, presented the PAO 2019 teaching prizes to the best in-house and external lecturer during the Leiden Revisited alumni event.

As a Leiden University’s master’s student in Political Science you conduct independent research and report your findings to fellow academics and, who knows, to a larger audience. Your thesis is a showcase of your academic skills and personal interest, and perhaps even passion. Easier said than done,…

The nominees for the IRO thesis prize 2021 and for the Prof. Dr. J.Th.J. van den Berg prize 2021. Who wrote the best Political Science bachelor’s theses?

Leiden professor of Cellular Immunology of Parasitic Infections Maria Yazdanbakhsh receives the prestigious NWO Spinoza Prize this year. This, in many ways, border-crossing scientist contributes with her research to more effective vaccines against parasitic infections and better medication for inflammatory…

Jan Zaanen, Professor in Theoretical Physics of condensed material, has been awarded a Spinoza prize. His pioneering ideas about the collective behaviour of quantum particles and high temperature superconductivity have often given him the reputation of being something of a rebel.

Jaap Kautz and Johannes Jobst have won the NeVac prize for developing a completely new method for studying electrical conductivity. The article they and their team leader Sense Jan van der Molen wrote about this subject was praised by the jury for its clarity. The prize will be presented to them on…

Dana Rademaker has won the Unilever Research Prize, which she received together with 2,500 euros at the Unilever’s Foods Innovation Centre on 12 December. She received the prize for her master’s thesis, which she wrote last year for the master’s programme Chemistry.

With his clever measuring methods Ignas Snellen – together with his team – was the first to detect carbon monoxide in the atmosphere of exoplanets. For his pioneering work the Leiden astrophysicist has been awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest academic honour in the Netherlands. The prize of 2.5 million…

Psychology teacher of the year is Marc Molendijk. The Master Thesis Awards are for Kim Houwaart and Linda Bomm. Hans van Lennep wins the PhD Publication Prize; Nina Komrij wins the PhD Wild Card: Societal Impact. The Support & Management staff Prize is for the whole Psychology Institute Office and Remond…

Aad van der Vaart, professor of stochastics at Leiden University, has been awarded the NWO Spinoza Prize for his groundbreaking research in statistics. Van der Vaart conducts fundamental research on models that can help, for instance, to identify genes that play a role in cancer.

Boyd Leupen has won the Institute of Political Science MSc Thesis Prize 2015. With 'Refuting asymmetrical Kantianism: On the moral standing of animals', Leupen completed his Political Science master studies and contributed an excellent piece of scholarly work. According to the jury, his thesis stands…

The Meijers prizes are awarded each year for the best published article from each faculty research programme. Reijer received the prize for his contribution to the programme ‘The Legitimacy and Effectiveness of Law & Governance’ with his article ‘Digitalisering en de (dis)balans binnen de trias politica’…

The Meijers prizes are awarded each year for the best published article from each faculty research programme. Veldt received the prize for her contribution to the research programme ‘Coherent Privaatrecht’ with her article ‘De betekenis van Europese productnormen voor privaatrechtelijke normstelling’…

Florian Schneider has earned the title of Leiden University Lecturer of the Year. Sinologist Schneider was nominated by his students and crowned winner of the LUS Teaching Prize at the opening of the academic year by the board of the Leiden University Student Platform (LUS).

The Meijers prizes are awarded each year for the best published article from each faculty research programme. Reijer received the prize for his contribution to the programme ‘The Legitimacy and Effectiveness of Law & Governance’ with his article ‘Digitalisering en de (dis)balans binnen de trias politica’…

Andrea Evers, Professor of Health Psychology at Leiden University, has won the Stevin Prize – alongside the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. She is the third social scientist from Leiden in a row to win one of these prizes. ‘Leiden attracts freethinkers.’

Sjaak Neefjes, Professor of Chemical Immunology at Leiden University, will receive the NWO Spinoza Prize this year. The Spinoza Committee called Neefjes an ‘exceptional researcher whose intelligence is matched by his boldness’. He will use the 2.5 million euro prize to pursue his research into cancer…

Andreas Bender, Assistant Professor for Medicinal Chemistry in the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the Leiden / Amsterdam Center for Drug Research, received the