Find our team and positions below. To contact a specific member, send an email to greenoffice@leidenuniv.nl with their name in the heading.

The Old Observatory houses four historical telescopes. On this page you can learn more about them.

PhD defence

PhD defence

Promotores: Prof.dr. C.U. Keller, Prof.dr. H.C. Gerritsen

The Jeugdwerkgroep is a national astronomy association for young people who are interested in astronomy. The Leiden section organizes a monthly meeting in the Old Observatory Leiden.

Plant diversity is essential for us and our planet as it sustains the stability of our ecosystems, provides vital materials and food to us and supports many ecosystem services.

Promotor: H.V.J. Linnartz

Ice, the solid state of water, plays an important role on our planet as well as the entire universe.Despite the fact that an individual water molecule has a very simple structure, its chemical bonding in the solid phase can be surprisingly complex.

A dense region of a gaseous and dusty cloud collapses to form a protostar surrounded by a disk and an envelope. This thesis uses both observations and models to study physical and chemical conditions of these protostellar systems which are likely where planets start to form.

Descriptive linguistics at LUCL covers documentation and descriptive analysis of lesser-studied languages as well as typological and historical comparison.

This book provides the answers, presenting clear insights into the current state of affairs and exploring future prospects.

The sustainable business law research group is dedicated to researching the complex relationship between business activities and sustainability. It strives to develop legal solutions that contribute to a more ethical, just, ecologically responsible and socially inclusive society. Our aim is to develop…

The Sustainable City Map serves as a comprehensive guide to achieve a sustainable lifestyle within the city. Whether you’re new in town or just looking to make greener choices, this map has something for everyone!

In the current global context, there is a pressing need to address sustainable energy supplies to safeguard our Planet and its ecosystems. The choices made by human society have a significant impact on genetic evolution and climate.

Surreal Geographies recovers a forgotten archive of Holocaust representation. Examining art, literature, and film produced from the immediate postwar period up to the present moment, Kathryn L. Brackney investigates changing portrayals of Jewish victims and survivors.

In 'The Spirit of Matter', Peter Pels explores the significance of emotionally evocative objects, challenging the denial of their existence in modern 'mind over matter' ideology.

NASA’s telescope SOFIA has provided a new glimpse of the chemistry in the inner region surrounding massive young stars where future planets could begin to form. Leiden PhD candidate Andrew Barr writes about it in the Astrophysical Journal. The scientists found massive quantities of water and organic…

Lecture, Kaiser Spring Lecture

Conference

This thesis aims to demonstrate how the achromatic nature and design flexibility of liquid-crystal optics can be used to improve high-contrast imaging instruments to facilitate detailed exoplanet characterization.

The energy system is at the heart of two of the greatest challenges of the 21st century: decreasing CO2 emissions to meet the ambitions of the Paris agreement while fulfilling the growing energy demand associated with the economic aspirations of a growing world population.

In September 2023 Social Justice Research, a journal from Springer Nature, published a ‘Special Issue on Veteran Reflections’. Eight ‘veterans’ analysed the current status of justice research and suggested new directions and refinements. Herman Steensma, guest member of the section Social, Economic…

The project seeks to explore the interplay of valuation and inequalities in science, using the interdisciplinary and planet-critical field of forest research as empirical case. It examines which/whose knowledge is recognised on what grounds, and how social dimensions like gender and geographical location…

Promotor: Prof.dr. H. J. A. Röttgering, Co-Promotor: Dr. M. Haverkorn

During the bachelor’s programme Astronomy you will immerse yourself in questions about our universe. Questions such as: ‘what happens in a black hole?’ and ‘what is dark matter?’ In doing so you will learn to apply mathematics and physics to astronomical problems and you will work with computer simulations…

Our current lifestyle is not sustainable, and we know it. Our carbon-based economy causes climate change, and our livestock threatens the rainforests. We also know what we ought to do to save the planet: decarbonize the economy and change our diet. However, too many people lack the moral motivation…

LUC's Liberal Arts and Sciences programme is centered around these four Global Challenges: Peace & Justice, Sustainability, Diversity, and Prosperity.

On this page, you will find the recordings of the online This Week's Discoveries from May 12, 2020, as well as a list of speakers since October 2015.

PhD defence

High-quality education, a broad choice of bachelor’s and master’s programmes and personal support in two student cities. And that’s just for starters. Leiden University offers you the ideal basis for enjoying the time of your life and gives you a head start to a world-class career.

The Hague is the Netherlands’ fastest-growing student city, and has been Leiden University’s second location since 2010. In addition to housing the Netherlands’ ministries and government bodies, The Hague is the International City of Peace and Justice and is home to countless embassies, political…

Studying in The Hague can make a big difference. The Hague is proud to be known as the international city of peace, justice and security. The city is full of opportunity and is a fantastic student city.

With 8.9 million euros from the Danish National Research Foundation, Aarhus University and Leiden Observatory will establish the Center for Interstellar Catalysis. The centre is led by Aarhus professor Liv Hornekær and aims to find out how and when the building blocks of life formed in the Universe.…

Agricultural production is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change around the world, and poorer countries face significantly more difficulties than the developed world. Coffee is an agricultural commodity that most people enjoy but are oblivious to the climate-related challenges affecting…

Is there extra-terrestrial life out there? It now looks as though we can sketch out an answer to this enduring question. Leiden Observatory is helping to build new instruments to find the most promising exoplanets.

These podcast episodes were written for the Green Office’s Spring Podcast competition and miniseries 'Beyond the Safe Space', on the theme: the Planetary Boundaries, which took place between the months of March-May 2023.

We are very excited to announce our Sustainability Series for 2023-2024. Each month an interactive workshop will be organised that discusses a specific theme of sustainability. Interested about sustainability? Do not hesitate to sign up to our events !

Below you will find a collection of books, other than those in the BLRN book series, to which members of BLRN have contributed.

Leiden Observatory is the astronomical institute of the Faculty of Science of Leiden University.

World history, connectivity and material culture, edited by Martin Pitts and Miguel John Versluys. From Cambridge University Press.

This book offers a linguistic anthropological analysis of multilingualism among the Matsigenka, Quechua, and Spanish languages on the coffee frontier of Southern Peru, set against the backdrop of economic transformation and deforestation in the world’s last great forest.

For a first time the atlas maps the soil biodiversity of the entire planet, and provide s comprehensive analysis of human-induced threats to soil organisms and soil functioning, facilitating development of new policies to protect soil and soil organisms.

During the Leiden Science Family Day, you can take part in various workshops. You can also watch various demonstrations. Where will you go?

This study aims to provide a long time perspective of human landscape manipulation. Studying the roles of prehistoric foragers in past ecosystems is of great importance to establish the character of past 'natural' landscapes and to enhance the management of current ones.

We investigate water quality and want to understand the effects of human interference on aquatic biodiversity.

More efficient use of phosphorus fertilisers would make it possible to meet food demand in 2050, without using more of the world’s land for agriculture. This is what environmental scientists José Mogollón and colleagues have discovered by working out various future scenarios for food production and…

While investigating 16 years of images of young stars from a retired astronomical camera, Leiden master's student Sam de Regt discovered that two of those stars were still enveloped in birth clouds. Never before has anyone captured these two stars in so much detail. He publishes his data-cleaning method…