Towards a framework that integrates content-based and process-based accounts of mathematical thinking

Classical mathematical models treat space and time as a continuum, while it is sometimes more useful to regard it as granular. Hupkes is studying what this means for a number of important patterns that are often found in computer calculations and in nature.

The modern-day Caribbean is a stunningly diverse but also intricately interconnected geo-cultural region, resulting partly from the islands’ shared colonial histories and an increasingly globalizing economy.

Our annual "Science to Experience" exhibition of student works is hosted by the V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media. This year's theme is "PATTERN".

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.

Mathematician Stéphanie van der Pas, winner of the C.J. Kok Jury Award for her PhD thesis in 2017, divides her time between research and education, and between pure mathematics and practical application.

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.

Two Leiden researchers have demonstrated how mathematics can improve our healthcare. Daniel Gomon has developed a model that contributes to the quality of care in hospitals. Marta Spreafico works on an app that helps physicians make well-informed decisions about the treatment of a certain type of cancer.…

A week before Christmas, the Deltaplan for Dutch Mathematics was presented to Hans de Groene (director NWO) and Sjoerd Verduyn Lunel (chairman Platform Wiskunde Nederland). Prof. dr. Frank den Hollander was one of the leading researchers in mathematics taking part in the Commission Deltaplan Mathema…

Promotor: S.M. Verduyn Lunel

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Do medicines arrive in the right amount at the right spot in our brain? By making a model that depicts our brain in small 'brain blocks', Esmée Vendel tries to find an answer to this question. Her new, mathematical model predicts the concentration of medicines in the brain over time and space. Vendel…

Marta Fiocco, associate professor at the Mathematical Institute of Leiden University, has signed an agreement with the UWV (the administrative authority that implements employee insurances and provides labour market and data services) to work with their data in the research project

As of 1 November, Jan Vonk has been appointed full professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute (MI). The institute is delighted with Jan’s appointment, as is he. ‘At the MI we combine the abstract with the concrete like no other.’

With dismay we took note of the sudden death of Willem Obbens, student and student assistant in Mathematics, Leiden University.

Mathematics students Bob Zwetsloot, Daan Becker, Loek Veenendaal and Onno Berrevoets have won 3 medals during the International Mathematics Competition in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria last week.

Professor of number theory Peter Stevenhagen has been appointed to up the position of scientific director of the Mathematical Institute of Leiden University on 15 September. In this position he is the successor of Aad van der Vaart, who led the institute for the last four years.

René Pannekoek received the 2013 Philipsprize for PhD students in Mathematics at the Dutch Congress for Mathematics 2013 in Nijmegen. It was the 8th time that this prize, 1000 Euro and a trophy, was awarded.

During the Dutch Mathematical Congress, Joost Batenburg has been awarded the Philips Mathematics Prize for PhD students.

On January 5, Rosa Winter will obtain her doctorate in arithmetic geometry. She researched solutions of equations that define so-called ‘del Pezzo surfaces’. ‘I like geometry because I can imagine and draw the shapes and objects,’ says Winter. ‘That makes abstract mathematics feel more tangible.’

Alex Colling himself calls his bachelor's thesis ‘the highlight of his time in Leiden’. And according to his supervisors, that resulted in an outstanding thesis, with great attention to detail. The Mathematics and Physics student worked on a mathematical description of monopoles: hypothetical particles…

In cryptography, the sky is the limit according to the new professor Mathematical Cryptology Léo Ducas. He already designed several cryptosystems as part of his research at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), some of which might soon be adopted as new international standards. Since December,…

With the conference circuit slowly reopening after Covid forced almost all academic interactions online, thousands of conference attendees descended on Brussels for Europe’s largest technology conference. eLaw’s annual sponsorship of one of the many CPDP conference panels brought a diverse range of…

Many students have difficulties to read and give meaning to algebraic formulas. In this study it is explored whether graphing formulas with pen and paper will improve students’ability to reason with algebraic formulas.

Peter Stevenhagen delivered daily lectures at the Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering in Lahore, in collaboration with ICTP, a well-known UNESCO institute in Trieste. The aim is to enhance it he knowledge of students from low- and middle-income countries. ‘By teaching here, I can truly…

The winner of the highest scientific distinction in mathematics, an explanation for wine tears and much more mathematical theory and application. From 8 to 12 July, 550 mathematicians will meet in the center of Leiden to discuss differential equations.

Knots come in all shapes and sizes: mariners and scouts can vouch for this. Sjabbo Schaveling will obtain his PhD on 1 September for a mathematical method to distinguish between all these knots. ‘I flatten them to a pretzel.’

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How can you figure out which points lie on a certain curve? And how many possible curves do you count by a given number of points? These are the kinds of questions Pim Spelier of the Mathematical Institute studied during his PhD research. Spelier received his doctorate with distinction on June 12.

On 22 November, Leiden scientist Jan Vonk received an ERC starting grant for his research on the building blocks of mathematics. This grant is not his first this year: in fact, this July Vonk also received a Vidi from NWO. Four questions to the scientist who got two grants this year.