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.

How to related figures of savages to conceptions of history?

From one year to the next, face masks have started to appear in the environment. As the masks are discarded, they end up in the top soil, in sediment layers, and in refuse heaps. In a couple of generations archaeologists will study the layer that has already been labeled the Face Mask Horizon. Current…

The Dutch government will be unable to make wearing face masks mandatory in public spaces in the short term, according to three constitutional and administrative law experts in NRC newspaper, including Wim Voermans.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Schilthuizen

The government wanted to show some muscle by making it compulsory to wear face masks in public indoor spaces as of 22.00 hours on 14 October. But it looks as though this will be 1 November after all. No need for that, tweeted Leiden professor of constitutional law Wim Voermans on 14 October, you can…

Girls with autism have relatively good social skills, which means that their autism is often not recognised. Autism manifests itself in girls differently from in boys. Psychologist Carolien Rieffe and colleagues from the Autism Centre and INTER-PSY (Groningen) report their findings in the Dutch Scientific…

Three years ago, on 13 October 2017, the Leiden Medievalists Blog was established. In their blogs, Leiden researchers from all disciplines talk about the Middle Ages in a fun and interesting way. Editors Jip Barreveld, Marlisa den Hartog and Thijs Porck talk about the blog and why the Middle Ages are…

Leiden Asia Centre researcher Anoma van der Veere argues that the Japanese government has failed to respond properly to Covid-19. There were difficulties with implementing government measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus – in some cases those measures were not even taken seriously. How…

An astonishing twelve students from Leiden University have received a Young Talent Award from the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities in Haarlem, a record. During the festive ceremony on 25 November, five master students received a Young Talent Graduation Award for their thesis and seven…

Hugo de Jonge, currently Minister of Housing, has chosen to appear before the Dutch House of Representatives to talk about his time as ‘Covid Minister’. This sets a dangerous precedent according to Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law at Leiden University. However, under Dutch constitutional…

Promotor: Prof.dr. D. Bouwmeester, Co-promotor: M.P. van Exter

Bas Verberk defended his thesis on 6 September 2016

The Leiden Academic Course Center offers photography in English. During the photography course you explore the possibilities of the camera and learn the principles of the aperture, shutter speed, sharpness (depth) and basic design aspects such as lighting and composition. This knowledge is important…

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

Large parts of the research described in this Thesis aims at the development of oligopeptide-masked toxins and their in situ immunoproteasome-mediated activation.

Steven Frost defended his thesis on 6 June 2017

The next generation of high-contrast imaging instruments on space-based observatories requires sophisticated wavefront sensing and control in addition to a high-performance coronagraph.

This thesis investigates the processing of words written in Japanese kanji and Chinese hànzì, i.e. logographic scripts.

Chapter by Fabio Cristiano and Emilio Distretti for the volume The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self, edited by Donatella Della Ratta, Geert Lovink, Teresa Numerico, and Peter Sarram for Palgrave Macmillan.

Promotor: C.J. ten Cate, Co-promotor: H.W. Slabbekoorn

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

Identifying and explaining change in the structure of central state bureaucracies and the determinants of survival of individual public organizations are two closely related areas of research in public administration. We aim to bridge the gap between these two main strands of studies of organizational…

Can we distinguish the effects of pesticides from other abiotic and biotic factors that occur in the field? And how do these factors interact with pesticides?

This project investigates the rich linguistic history of the crucial language groups in East Africa and includes a search for words that indicate earlier lost languages. These outcomes, combined with recent archaeological and genetic research, will contribute to a new understanding of East Africa’s…

Do natural soundscapes affect migratory decisions of fishes moving up and down rivers and is this process disturbed by vessel sounds?

Face masks and plastic gloves are supposed to protect us from corona, but they are becoming an increasing problem for the environment. In a special series of the New York Times, Leiden biologist Liselotte Rambonnet and alumnus Auke-Florian Hiemstra talk about their research and the special website they…

Face masks and gloves designed to protect us are, in fact, dangerous for the animals around us. Scientists from Leiden warn that throughout the world, on land and in the water, animals are ingesting corona waste, or getting entangled in it. The two biologists are asking for everybody’s help to better…

Former PhD, Bachelor and Master students of the Van Exter Lab

Colonial art and artefacts were not necessarily looted. Pieter ter Keurs, Professor of Museums, Collections and Society, calls for more nuance in the debate on art and collectors’ items from a loaded past. Inaugural speech on 2 December.

Do offshore windfarms affect the local biodiversity of the pelagic fish community and are fish deterred or attracted by sounds?

This research project is supported by an NWO Aspasia grant, DeepDish TV, crowd-sourced funding, and the Democracy and Media Foundation.

How has interreligious encounter in Ogbómòsó created multiple religious belongings and identities among individuals and groups?

Aron is a second-year student of Korean Studies. He was in Seoul as part of the stay-abroad portion of the program when Leiden University took measures due to the coronavirus. He and his fellow students decided to let the last flight back to the Netherlands pass to stay in South Korea.

The Netherlands has also announced special measures to fight SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. These measures have at times caused questionable behaviour, such as stockpiling or charging exorbitant sums for masks. But the intentions behind this seemingly antisocial behaviour are not necessarily bad, says Professor…

An international team of astronomers led by Violeta Gámez Rosas (Leiden University) has observed a supermassive black hole hidden in a ring of dust. This discovery fits the idea that the so-called active centers of galaxies are much more similar than observations show, because the viewing angle from…

After almost 18 months of following lectures alone in their rooms, many students are going back to face-to-face classes for the first time. And the same is true for the lecturers. How do people feel about it? We went to Leiden Law School to find out. ‘For a whole year, I’ve been watching lectures in…

Dear NVIC friends, As we are working towards a soft reopening of our institute and library, we have decided to open on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 am to 3 pm, for a limited number of people, by personal appointment, from the 9th of September on.

In an article by the New York Times, cultural heritage law specialist Evelien Campfens discusses the difficulties surrounding the ownership of looted art.

A collaboration of physicists and chemists organized the LEELIS conference on new computer chip technology in Amsterdam on 10-11 November. Leiden physicist Joost Frenken is director of the organizing institute ARCNL.

From July 25th till August 7th, a team led by Professor Marie Soressi went to France and worked at La Grande Roche de Quinçay, a cave site located in a forested area close to the city of Poitiers. The corona outbreak triggered the need to rethink the organisation of the excavation.

A new special issue on translation and the cultural Cold War sheds light on the understudied and yet important role of translation in cultural transfer.

Would it be possible for local and traditional European forms of parrhesiastic theater—by which Eleni Kamma means events, actions, and performances staged by characters who courageously speak their minds through scenes of excess and laughter, that take place in public view and incite the spectator’s…

We would like to present to you a simple guidebook about living a sustainable life as a student in the cities of Leiden and The Hague. Whether you are a first-year student still trying to find your way around or already doing your masters – students wanting to explore more sustainable options and save…