Commercial MRI systems cost millions of euros to purchase and require highly trained technicians to operate. Prof. Andrew Webb works on accessible MRI techniques that offer new opportunities in both developed and developing countries. Webb is a professor at the Radiology Department of the LUMC and,…

The intake of bachelor’s students from classic immigration countries whose prior education was in the Netherlands does not reflect the growing diversity in society. This is according to data from Statistics Netherlands.

The COVID Radar app is citizen science at its best. More than 200,000 users in the Netherlands are answering questions about their health and behaviour to help predict the development of the pandemic. Niels Chavannes, Professor of General Practice at Leiden University Medical Center, explains how the…

Should we ban snack bars from neighbourhoods where residents are overweight or have diabetes? At the Common Sense about Health knowledge festival, scientists, civil servants and other professionals discussed how South Holland can become healthier. The Healthy Society Map makes it clear where there are…

The new online diversity and inclusion dossier combines all faculty initiatives on this topic. But what is the situation on diversity and inclusion at Humanities? An interview with Aurelie van ‘t Slot, policy advisor Internationalisation, Diversity and Inclusion.

Three alumni of our Master’s degree programme in Ancient History talk to us about how they found a job after graduation during the coronavirus pandemic. During the interview, Gabriël hung a huge board covered in post-it reminders behind his laptop, Molly was glad that the members of the selection committee…

ESA’s space telescope Gaia, which maps the Milky Way, completes its active phase of scanning the sky on 15 January. Over the past decade, Gaia has made more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other cosmic objects. ‘Gaia is already the discovery machine of the decade,’ Leiden…

Alternative demonstrations were held in Leiden and The Hague on Thursday 14 November after the national protest in Utrecht was cancelled. Leiden University supports these protests, which were organised by WOinActie. Read our live blog of the demonstrations.

A more inclusive and diverse society is what Talisha Schilder, Hawra Nissi and Chiraz Hassoumi spend many hours a week working towards. Their hard work led them to being nominated for the ECHO Award.

Nu in heel Europa rechtse partijen hoog scoren in de peilingen is de verwachting dat de discussie omtrent migratie flink opgeschud gaat worden. Desondanks maant hoogleraar Sarah Wolff tot kalmte.

‘Our faculty is a very international community. And that is something everybody really benefit from,’ says Yun Tian. As the officer internationalisation, she is the bridge between international students and staff, the faculty and universities abroad. ‘Science goes beyond countries and carries no nationality.…

Dutch greenhouse horticulture is a world leader when it comes to innovative capacity and sustainability, but ‘the challenges are great in terms of energy, water, environment and biodiversity,’ says Peter van Bodegom, coordinator of AgriFood at the Centre for Sustainability of the Leiden, Delft, Erasmus…

Supporting our students’ well-being is a priority for the University. Last week was our Student Well-Being Week, and throughout the year our students have access to mental health support such as buddy programmes, student support groups and study skills workshops. Each faculty is to have its own well-being…

Alumnus Jelte Liemburg, aged 29, aims to visit every single one of the 500 museums in the Netherlands that take part in the national museum pass scheme.

Ten Leiden social and behavioural scientists have successfully applied for the NWO Open Competition. With this Open Competition, NWO gives researchers the chance to start small, high-risk, innovative or promising research projects.

Sinéad Mulcahy recently started the Europaeum Scholars Programme, a two-year policy and leadership course for a group of thirty talented and committed PhD candidates from universities across Europe. She is already enthusiastic – both about the programme and her fellow scholars. ‘I would like to bring…

We can accrue pensions, reinforce dykes and make our homes more sustainable. But how do we make our higher education fit for the future? And what skills should we be teaching our students now for jobs that don’t yet exist? Lecturers and educational developers looked to the future during the keynote…

After two years of corona restrictions, it was ‘back to normal’ in 2022. Migration, elections, the history of slavery, Russia, and Ukraine were much-discussed topics. We compiled an overview of the most-read news items and other events of the past year.

Lecture, China Seminar

Lecture

Lecture, Seminar

PhD defence

Course

Debate

Lecture

Lecture, Conversation

Debate, Symposium

The latest generation of artificial intelligence (AI) can use natural language to answer complex questions and tasks. OpenAI launched the ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022. This has caused a stir in the world of education and is a cause of concern for many. What could AI in general and ChatGPT in particular…

What skills do students need to function as academic professionals and engaged citizens?

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PhD defence

Lecture, Research Seminar

Network meeting

Lecture

‘Culture change takes time,’ said Vice-Rector Hester Bijl at the closing panel of the University’s Diversity Symposium on 26 January. She talked about the road to a diverse and inclusive university. The symposium provided plenty of concrete examples of small steps that can already be taken.

Leiden alumnus Luc Amkreutz is a curator at the National Museum of Antiquities. His exhibition about the submerged landscape of Doggerland highlights what we can learn from prehistory. ‘Just like the people of Doggerland, we are confronted with climate change, but we are responsible for the speed of…

Piercing through the skull with an ice pick, administering electric shocks without an anaesthetic, or applying leeches to the uterus: these may seem like medieval methods of torture, but they are in fact therapies used in medicine. Willem van der Does writes about all of them in his new book. ‘Physicians…

The Week of the International Students, from 14 – 18 November is an initiative of Nuffic. The aim of this week is to showcase the importance of an international experience for both Dutch and international students. This year’s theme Meet the world, make the change highlights the positive change students…

On 28 June, ten dedicated lecturers received their Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO). Rector Hester Bijl congratulated them in an online meeting. We asked some of them what this qualification means to them, what they believe ‘good teaching’ entails and what makes them so passionate about education…

‘Am I setting a good example myself?’ Hanneke Hulst wonders. As Recognition and Rewards project leader, she maintains that we should stop expecting researchers to be experts at everything, even though she herself keeps a lot of balls in the air.

Four prints, ten years of research. Not that she got bored of them, on the contrary. Corrie van Maris, who receives her PhD this week, has always remained fascinated by her 17th-century series, for which she feels so much love. ‘I kept seeing different, new things.’

Graphic Novels and Comics have developed from pulp status to an entirely self-contained medium. This form of storytelling is not limited to stories of superheroes but has been used, molded and reshaped to display historical events, classic stories and autobiographical memoirs. But where should you begin…

Migration, globalisation, technological developments, climate change: the greatest challenges of our time all affect our labour market. But how exactly? And can we influence this? Professor of Economics Olaf van Vliet regards it as his job to reveal how things really are. ‘That way, we can work on solutions…

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

So much has happened this year! 2023 was an eventful year in which several wars raged about which our experts could offer interpretation. It was also the year in which the government made apologies for the slavery past. Leiden humanities scholars were at the forefront of this with their research on…

For every period, it is a challenge to unearth the details of political trafficking; yet the effort needs to include all relevant persons, groups, and institutions – not only those wielding formal responsibilities. We hope to reinvigorate this effort by inviting specialists to present their research…

As University historian, Pieter Slaman researches the University’s past, but he’s equally interested in its present. ‘It’s useful to be familiar with issues from the past. Not to be rooted in the past because some developments from history are things you definitely don’t want to repeat.’

The legal distinction between victims of human trafficking and victims of migrant smuggling is unjust, argues De Massol Rebetz in her PhD thesis. In certain instances, smuggled migrants should be treated the same as victims of human trafficking.

Workshop

Lecture, LUCIS What's New?! Series