We will use Artificial Intelligence to make an intelligent, multilingual search engine for archaeological texts, which will enable new discoveries about the human past.

Since the late 1990s Leiden University has been located in two cities: Leiden and The Hague. Leiden is where the University was founded and still forms its heart, with six of the seven faculties being housed there. The faculty of Governance and Global Affairs is located in The Hague and most of the…

Leiden chemist Marc Koper is the winner of the 2017 Faraday Medal for his significant contribution to electrochemistry, from fundamental science to practical application.

On 10 October, Valerie Frissen was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Internet Society Foundation. The professor by special appointment received the award in recognition of her tireless efforts in the field of internet freedom, digital rights and internet governance.

New funding allows IBL-researcher Herman Spaink to purchase a measurement device for more studies on human diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis using zebrafish as the model system.

Dr. Mei Wang, chair of ‘Leiden University - European Center for Chinese Medicine and natural compounds’ has been awarded the ‘Qihuang prize’. The prize is awarded by the Chinese Medicine Society in recognition of her significant contribution to Chinese medicine outside China and to further stimulate…

On Thursday July 1, our alumna Lise Stork will defend her PhD thesis at Leiden University. It is about using AI to make sense of handwritten natural history archives.

Leiden University’s Rector Magnificus, Professor Hester Bijl, has been reappointed for a second term by the Board of Governors.

Shuai Guo, PhD candidate at Company Law and the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law, was invited to speak about his research on cross-border bank resolution, with a comparative analysis of the EU, the US and China, at the Global Bankruptcy Scholars’ Work-in-progress Workshop held on 20-21 September at…

Carlo Beenakker has been appointed a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the organisation behind the journal Science. Among the Fellows, he is the third Dutch person and first Leiden researcher.

How can humans and computers learn from data? To research this, scientists often use so-called Bayesian methods. Although these methods are widely used, they also have limitations and are not always easy to interpret. In her dissertation Rianne de Heide describes some of these problems and introduces…

Emeritus Professor Ben Lugtenberg received ‘The Arima Award for Applied Microbiology’ from the IUMS (International Union of Microbial Societies) for his life-time contributions to this field.

For her research on social-emotional regulation in children Michelle Achterberg on Wednesday, May 25 2022 received the Dutch Association of Developmental Psychology (VNOP) Dissertation Prize. With her PhD research, she mapped out which mechanisms play a role in social emotion regulation in childhood.…

Dr Mark Leiser, Assistant Professor at eLaw, and Wen-Ting Yang, former Law And Digital technologies student, won the Best Paper award at BILETA, the United Kingdom’s largest tech and legal education conference.

Corinna Jentzsch and Wouter Veenendaal, two political scientists affiliated with Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science, have been awarded a NWO ‘Veni’-grant. This grant brings them official recognition as ‘young outstanding researchers’, as well as financial support for conducting independent…

Marc Koper has been selected as one of the six new fellows in 2015 of the International Society of Electrochemistry.

Last Thursday, 1 June, the Institute of Psychology's strategy was officially presented during the Institute of Psychology Party. After a year of commitment from across the organisation, there is now a plan for the next five years that includes five focal points, based on the Leiden academic core val…

Thanks to deep learning, computer program AlphaZero plays better chess than the best person. The computer wins because it can predict further ahead than a human being through pattern recognition. Aske Plaat discusses this special development in Dutch newspaper NRC. He expects the major tech companies…

During this Lunch Seminar of 20 November 2023, Ramesh Ganohariti presented his PhD research on contested sovereignty and politics of citizenship.

As of November 1st, Peter Grünwald has been appointed professor Statistical learning on a new chair hosted by both the Mathematical Institute and the Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science (LIACS).

On April 26, three separate projects from LIACS Media Technology group members were awarded a

Psychologist Anne Urai has received the Young talent award from the Dutch Neuroscience society. She was described as a 'talented, promising early career researcher' and complimented on her international profile, having spent time in London, Paris, Hamburg and New York.

Speech Prosody 2024 includes several poster sessions, the description of which you can find below.

YAL raises its voice on policy matters.

NWO has awarded eleven Leiden researchers a Vidi grant of 800,000 euros. The research subjects range from Cicero and muscle dystrophy to the archaeology of bogs.

Leiden University has an active open science community. Open science means transparency in all phases of research by precisely documenting every step of the way and making this publicly available. ‘It’s time to be open,’ say psychologists Anna van ’t Veer and Zsuzsika Sjoerds. There is increasing awareness…

Indigenous philosophies have been ignored for too long. This prompted Osiris González Romero to study the wisdom of the Nahua in Mexico. Their philosophy has an important message for the consumption society: see the earth and nature as living beings and not just as resources. PhD defence 22 June.

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…

Marieke Adriaanse is Professor of Behavioural Interventions in Population Health and researches behavioural science issues in health. She advocates for better interdisciplinary collaboration and a new form of recognition and rewards within academia. ‘We have to stop being so blinkered,’ she says in…

The trend of legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples is broadening. More and more rights are becoming available to same-sex partners – in more and more European countries. Leiden Law School and the French Institute for Demographic Studies publish detailed database and comparative analysis.

For a while, it was uncertain whether prominent American politician Nancy Pelosi would travel to Taiwan. But last Tuesday, she did visit – much to the displeasure of China. Asia expert Casper Wits explains why China reacted so strongly and what the consequences of the visit may be.

In 2018, astronomer Jorryt Matthee won the C.J. Kok Jury Prize for the best dissertation of the Faculty of Science. He succeeded in finding a number of rare galaxies from the early Universe. One of them received the same initials as football player Cristiano Ronaldo: CR7.

Mathematician Francesca Arici has joined the Raising Public Awareness Committee of the European Mathematical Society. She aims to coordinate and unite the European efforts of communicating and promoting mathematics. ‘We also hope to achieve more recognition for people who do science communication.’

Psychology Lab on Wheels makes science accessible for everyone. On Monday 24 June, we will be back with our mobile lab at the Old Observatory near the Singelpark in Leiden. Join our research to learn to better recognise emotions with a Serious game and read more about participant Maxime and game developer…

‘Very interesting’ is what two bachelor students have to say about the stories by Liesbeth van Vliet and Niki Antypa during the Psychology Science Day. The icing on the cake were the poster presentations about the bachelor's theses, admired and commented on by scientists and fellow students. Teachers…

Pastoralist Societies, Rock Art and Literacy in Jordan’s Black Desert (200 BC to 800 AD)

Leiden University celebrated the annual prize ceremony of the World Cultural Council (WCC) on 8 November with lectures by leading scientists in a festively decorated Pieterskerk.

In the context of Panama’s independence month, the Panamanian Embassy in the Kingdom of The Netherlands decided to recognize Natalia Donner’s contributions to the study of Panamanian history and culture, as well as her role in a massive repatriation project.

What do gender identity and digital technology have to do with each other? Together they are the subject of research at Leiden University. Researchers Tessa Verhoef and Eduard Fosch-Villaronga of the faculties of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Law will investigate the interaction between artificial…

The university is committed to providing an accessible learning and working environment for students and staff. They should be able to feel at home at our faculty. That is why there is now an all-gender toilet in every humanities building to contribute to that feeling of recognition and safety.

Neuroscientist Anne Hafkemeijer is able to distinguish two different forms of dementia using advanced imaging techniques. This is the first step towards early recognition of dementia in patients on the basis of brain networks. PhD defence 26 May.

Leiden astronomer Anthony Brown had the honour to give the prestigious Spitzer Lectures at Princeton University. In five lectures spread over the beginning of May, he gave an insight into the Gaia Mission. ‘One of the intellectual highlights of the year.’

CML Researcher Merlijn van Weerd wins Parker / Gentry Award 2015 for Conservation Biology at Field Museum Chicago in recognition of his commitment to biodiversity conservation in the Philippines

The president of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has personally invited Jan Slikkeveer, professor of Ethnobotanical Knowledge Systems in Developing Countries, to give a lecture during the World Culture Forum. The Forum will be hosted in Indonesia from 24 to 27 November.

If we need funding for a project, equipment or research at the university, we automatically think of the Dutch Research Council or other grant providers. But more and more researchers are managing to connect with people who care about the university.

Prof. Sarah de Rijcke will succeed Paul Wouters as dean of Leiden University's Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FSW) from 1 January 2024. Paul Wouters will retire at the beginning of January.

PhD candidate Manon Wintgens is using an algorithm to trawl through thousands of international tax treaties. She hopes to detect a system in the dizzying interplay between countries, businesses and documents. It is a unique research project.

Astronomer and science communicator Pedro Russo is awarded the K.J Cath Prize and € 2,500 for his outreach efforts that bring science to the general public. ‘There are so many bright scientists, and so few people communicating about science.’

Nadine Akkerman has deciphered the correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, and studied 17th-century spies. Her fascinating historiographies have now been recognised with membership of the Young Academy.