Principles of Environmental Sciences provides a comprehensive picture of the principles, concepts and methods that are applicable to problems originating from the interaction between the living and non-living environment and mankind. Both the analysis of such problems and the way solutions to environmental…

Natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce. If we want to maintain our current standard of living, we will need inventive solutions. The researchers at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) share their thoughts on how to achieve a fully circular economy in which as little use as possible…

This perspective addresses four challenges facing theorists whose aim is to make quantitatively accurate predictions for reactions of molecules on metal surfaces, and suggests ways of meeting these challenges, focusing on dissociative chemisorption reactions of H2, N2, and CH4.

CML is an institute of the Faculty of Science of Leiden University.

Promotores: H. Schiessel, G.T. Barkema

Methods for accurately computing the interaction of molecules with metal surfaces are critical to understanding and thereby improving heterogeneous catalysis.

Catalysis is of extreme relevance in the production of everyday materials and plays a central role in many aspects of our life.

Social and Behavioural Sciences, Political Science

Mission: The Environmental Biology department aims to increase the scientific understanding of how current and emerging anthropogenic threats affect biodiversity and ecosystem services. Through this understanding they facilitate strategic management of natural resources by addressing urgent challenges…

To limit the effects of climate change, global average temperature since pre-industrial measurements are to be kept well below 2 °C preferably even at 1.5 °C.

Does knowledge of environmental performance change farmer's behaviour?

HomininSpace is an agent based modelling and simulation system in which fluctuating carrying capacity is the key attractor for hominin dispersal. A parameterized and spatially explicit reconstructed palaeo-environment models available energy in the form of secondary biomass using reconstructed climate…

How to ensure the environmental and economic benefits of circularity transition at macro-scale?

What performance criteria does a new technology have to fulfill in order to be added to the list of future energy options and what constraints exist in terms of broad market penetration?

On 7 May 2020, Jolanda van der Vliet defended her thesis 'The International Legal Protection of Environmental Refugees. A human rights-based, security and State responsibility approach'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. N.J. Schrijver and Prof. J.J.C. Voorhoeve.

LCA has become an important method to study environmental impacts of human activities. Still, there are several methodological issues in LCA that can adversely affect the results reliability.

Using the principles of Industrial Ecology in Environmental Policy making in two cases: transition to a hydrogen economy and chlorinated compounds.

Theorists have recently made substantial progress in simulating reactive molecule-metal surface scattering but still face major challenges. The grand challenge is to develop an approach that enables accurate predictive calculations of reactions involving electronically excited states with potential…

Circumstellar discs are the reservoirs of gas and dust that surround young stars and have the potential to become planetary systems.

This thesis is a collection of theoretical works aiming at adjusting quantum algorithms to the hardware of quantum computers.

PhD candidates carry out a programme of independent research and additional (limited) course work, culminating in production of a PhD thesis in typically 4 years.

The project’s overall goal is to improve Indonesia’s environmental legal framework and its implementation by strengthening the regulatory capacity of the government, and by enhancing the capacity of CSOs and scholars to hold the government accountable for its regulatory performance.

Promotor: W.T. de Groot

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo, Co-promotor: R. Heijungs

Science, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)

The Institute of Environmental Sciences has carried out and participates in several projects that deal with the analysis of energy systems.

They were called 'annoying brats', the group of campaigning scientists who in 1978 founded what is now an internationally acclaimed ecological research institute. Their stories and those of the current staff of the Institute of Environmental Sciences are described in the book 'Forty years of Leiden…

Evaluating the environmental consequences of diet changes in the European Union.

Various departments of the university have worked on developing the institution’s environmental policy plan: het Milieubeleidsplan Universiteit Leiden 2016-2020.

Modern computer-aided simulation tools used by various industries produce gigabytes of data. But currently, they take days and even up to weeks of computation effort. To make the best use of all these data, the DAMIOSO project focuses on developing algorithms and tools for managing, mining, and optimizing…

This research programme aims to increase the scientific understanding of how current and emerging anthropogenic threats affect biodiversity and ecosystem services to facilitate strategic management of natural resources. To this end, we address urgent challenges in relation to the mechanisms involved…

The world abounds with different footprints that calculate human impact on the environment. Environmental specialist Kai Fang is the first person to have developed a family of footprints that allow better measurement of environmental damage and the depletion of natural sources. PhD defence on 24 Nov…

Lecture

In the absence of stringent and coordinated international action, States might seek alternatives to promote environmental protection unilaterally.

Science, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)

Environmental Humanities in the New Himalayas: Symbiotic Indigeneity, Commoning, Sustainability showcases how the eco-geological creativity of the earth is integrally woven into the landforms, cultures, and cosmovisions of modern Himalayan communities.

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.

How can we best deal with the current problems caused by the human impact on the nitrogen cycle? How do we make the transition to a sustainable society? As of 1 September, nitrogen expert Jan Willem Erisman will be working on these questions at Leiden University: he will exchange the Louis Bolk Institute…

This socio-legal research focuses on the impacts of environmental displacement on land rights and land-related conflict in Mozambique in the aftermath of cyclone Idai, and on the role of the legal framework in addressing these problems.

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, in collaboration with the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (‘C-EENRG’, University of Cambridge) and the ESIL Interest Group (IG) on International Criminal Justice, is pleased to invite public international scholars,…

The thesis addresses the long-term dynamical evolution of hierarchical multiple systems.

Promotor: J. Schaye

This project aims to explore the environmental impact of early Roman expansion (4th/3rd century BC) through a program of dating and ecological sampling of traces of field systems (centuriations).

Analytical tools for environmental design and management in a systems perspective. The combined use of analytical tools.

The state of our environment is a global concern. Despite an increasing awareness, setting internationally binding and ambitious commitments has proven to be a very difficult process. Can unilateral trade measures form an alternative and contribute to global environmental protection?

In this thesis, mathematical modeling and simulation was applied as a tool to inform quantitative decision making in oncology drug discovery and development.

Promotores: W.T. de Groot, M. Tchuenté, Co-promotor: J.P. Cheylan