Marc Koper, Professor of Catalysis and surface chemistry, has won the Brian Conway Prize for Physical Electrochemistry of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE). The ISE jury chose Koper as the winner due to his outstanding contributions in the field of physical electrochemistry.

Despite the rapid progress in solar and wind energy, a completely clean energy supply remains a huge challenge. Heavy industry, aviation, shipping and road transport are not yet able to do without carbon-based fuels. To reach the climate goals, in these industries energy consumption should be CO2 neutral. In…

Twenty years from now, the world population is estimated to be around 9 billion people (now 8 billion). In combination with the improvements in living standards and the corresponding growth in consumption, this population will result in an enormous increase in the demand for food, consumables, water…

Development of an aggregated impact indicator to measure decoupling.

Even a small quantum computer should be able to simulate exactly the properties and behaviour of new molecules. This would take chemistry to an entirely new level. Better solar panels, more powerful batteries, saving lots of energy in the chemical industry: the applications have the potential to transform…

The NEASQC project brings together academic experts and industrial end-users to investigate and develop a new breed of Quantum-enabled applications that can take advantage of NISQ (Noise Intermediate-Scale Quantum) systems in the near future. NEASQC is use-case driven, addressing practical problems…

This project, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Hans van der Plicht, comprises several studies aimed at the use of isotopes occurring naturally in organic material as tracers for both the climate change and its cultural impact at about 6200 BC. The research will be carried out by the co-applicant at…

Leiden University is aware of its role in society and wants to create a green, healthy and inclusive campus and have a positive impact on the field of climate and circularity.

The plans for making the University Library (UB) more sustainable will be carried out in three steps: first the glazing at the front of the building will be replaced with HR++ glass, then the skylights will be renewed and finally the air conditioning system will be updated. Once these steps have been…

Isotopes on exoplanets, a more efficient memory for data centres or new molecules that work against the Zika virus and HIV. Which PhD candidate has written the most impressive dissertation of 2023? The jury of the C.J. Kok Jury Award faces the challenging task of deciding that. Meet the nominees of…

The long term goal of the Biophysical Organic Chemistry/SSNMR group, headed by Prof. Huub de Groot, is to reach an understanding of structure, dynamics and functional mechanisms of membrane proteins and self-organized biological assemblies and to translate this knowledge into new concepts for nano-devices,…

The 'living lab' Vrouwe Vennepolder is situated just north of Leiden, The Netherlands, and aims to find ways to improve the agriculture of the future.

What is the size and composition of the Dutch urban mine? How will the urban mine develop over time, and how can it be used as a source of materials as part of a circular economy?

Leiden University is committed to reducing our water consumption.

Op 30 oktober presenteerde de Commissie tot Revisie van het Reglement van Orde, onder voorzitterschap van Kees van der Staaij (SGP), haar bevindingen aan Kamervoorzitter Khadija Arib.

On Monday 18 March at 10:45 a deadly shooting took place on the 24 Oktoberplein in Utrecht, killing three people and severely injuring five others. Leiden University expresses its solidarity with the families left behind in the wake of this horrendous and regrettable incident. Several researchers of…

If you could convert CO2 into building blocks for other molecules with the help of electricity, you could make the chemical industry considerably more sustainable. Leiden chemists have unravelled a fundamental part of this process and applied this knowledge in a real device, as they write in Nature…

Imagine we could do what green plants can do: photosynthesis. Then we could satisfy our enormous energy needs with deep-green hydrogen and climate-neutral biodiesel. Scientists have been working on this for decades. Chemist Chengyu Liu will receive his doctorate on 8 June for yet another step that brings…

The energy and water consumption and CO2 footprint of all buildings at Leiden University can now be seen on its new Duurzaam in Beeld website. ‘We do a lot about sustainability,’ says Jeroen Waijenberg, Sustainability and Energy Coordinator at the University’s Real Estate Directorate. ‘But our efforts…

Understanding the proces of electrochemical reactions is essential to improve the technology for the energy transition. Fuel cell cars, for example use hydrogen produced from the electrolysis of water. Mariana Monteiro did fundamental research on the process and won two prizes with her thesis.

How does Leiden University save energy? Could we organise our recycling better? Do our study programmes devote sufficient attention to the importance of sustainability? And how do we address this theme in our research? These and other questions are answered in Leiden University’s Sustainability Report…

Filling up lecture halls with friends and family for graduation ceremonies is simply not an option this year. So the Faculty of Science came up with a safe yet festive way to put graduated bachelors and masters in the limelight: they transformed the restaurant of the Gorlaeus Lecture Halls into a corona-safe…

What is Leiden University doing to reduce energy consumption and move away from fossil energy? Where can you find information about energy? And what changes can you make yourself?

Conflicts are good! According to Eefje Cuppen, Professor Governance of Sustainability at Leiden University's Institute of Public Administration. But what is the status of the energy transition? That is happening at a very slow pace here the Netherlands.

Mimicking photosynthesis to produce bioplastics sustainably and efficiently. Researchers from the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) and the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) will assess this new approach. ‘An exciting opportunity to explore a new, appealing research topic in a collaboration between…

Researchers at Leiden University have been awarded a €4 million EU grant to develop climate-neutral fuels. With this money they will expand the broad research community that focuses on green energy. If we work together, we can make the rapid progress that is needed, says Prof. Huub de Groot, Professor…

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded an Advanced Grant to six Leiden researchers. It awards these significant grants to established principal investigators for ground-breaking, high-risk research.

Climate change and energy transition were an important theme of the Dutch provincial elections: how should we invest in new sources of energy? Leiden University conducts multidisciplinary research into renewable energy solutions. Read more about this in the ‘Renewable Energy’ research dossier.

The present market regulations make it extremely risky to invest in green energy, and this is impeding the fight against climate change. This is what Oscar Kraan writes in his dissertation. PhD defence on 25 April.

From 9 September onwards, Leiden scientists, citizens and farmers will jointly investigate how to sustainably manage peat meadowland. In ten years' time, they hope to have learned how to promote biodiversity and simultaneously reduce nitrogen and CO2 emissions, among other things. The research will…

Every year, more than three thousand businesses are declared insolvent in the Netherlands. The purpose of bankruptcy is to divide the assets of these companies among the creditors. However, the value of the claims of the creditors often exceed the value of the assets of the company

Leiden Law School has a strong tradition of research in the field of fact-finding and evidence in criminal cases.

On Sustainable Tuesday, two weeks before Dutch Budget Day, the Dutch cabinet receives a suitcase full of sustainable ideas and initiatives. The initiators' aim: to make the government plans for the upcoming year a little more sustainable. At the Leiden Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), assistant…

Following the Beirut explosion, BBC's podcast series The Foodchain explores the chemical that caused the blast: ammonium nitrate. A compound that is widely used to produce fertilizer. Professor of Environmental sustaibability Jan Willem Erisman tells about the effects of nitrogen on the environment.

History student Mitchell Wiegand Bruss is taking part in the water council elections. Whereas until recently he had no idea what the governing body stands for, he now wants to create awareness among other students about the political body.

The coronavirus pandemic has had us working and studying at home, and this has had a positive effect on Leiden University’s sustainability results. This is apparent from the university’s new Sustainability Report 2020. The report also shows that nearly all the targets from the Environmental Policy Plan…

If computers work on superconducting current, they won’t consume any energy. Leiden physicists have now gained control over a new type of superconducting memory elements. Publication in Nature Communications.

Working for a top faculty? Discover the vacancies at the Faculty of Science and apply immediately.

Development of scenarios for 2050 detailed in an IO framework

We review the state-of-the-art in the theory of dissociative chemisorption (DC) of small gas phase molecules on metal surfaces, which is important to modeling heterogeneous catalysis for practical reasons, and for achieving an understanding of the wealth of experimental information that exists for this…

Huub de Groot is professor in Biophysical Organic Chemistry. With his team he works in the field of photosynthesis and artificial photosynthesis. The molecular basis for photosynthesis is formed by protein complexes and organelles that contain chlorophyll molecules. The antenna systems herein capture…

The transition from fossil fuels and the practical changes that this entails make many demands on citizens. Emma ter Mors, a psychologist and lecturer at Leiden University, is researching the factors that contribute to public perception and acceptance of new energy technologies.

We are doing all we can to save energy at the university. Find out how you as a member of staff or student can do about energy and help reduce CO2 emissions.

The renovation of the Herta Mohr building (formerly known as Cluster Zuid) is completed. It is the third project in the redevelopment of the Humanities Campus. With the renewal of these buildings, the university ensures a sustainable campus with modern facilities. The university wants to create an attractive…

Pharma company Janssen has begun construction on a new office and lab building at the Leiden Bio Science Park. The first pile of the 13,500 square metre building has been driven into the ground.

A wind turbine near your home? The energy transition is not seen as just by all parties concerned. It’s essential to involve local residents, argues Emma ter Mors, social psychologist. As a researcher, she focuses on identifying factors that influence public acceptance of energy technologies. Isn't…

The European Project SUNRISE, ‘Solar energy for a circular economy’, has been selected as one of the six Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) within the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission. Funded with 1 million euros, it will set the base for a large scale European research project.…

NWO is funding three partnership projects with the industry sector. The projects relate to speeding up the search for new medicines, studying the changes in proteins as medicine and developing analytical techniques for research on the building blocks of life.

A special relationship between plants and fungi, which plays an important role in carbon storage in soil, has the potential to slow down climate change. However, the amount of carbon stored in soil is decreasing as a result of human activity. This is what researchers say in a publication in Nature Communications.…

E-mails are not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about sustainability. Yet, your e-mails can add kilos of extra CO2 to the atmosphere each year. Students from the LDE Bachelor Honours Programme Sustainability tackled these and other sustainability challenges on behalf of partner organisations.…