Promotor: E.F. Smets Co-promotor: J. Geml

What is the population size and social structure in time and space? What is the lion diet and food preference in time and space? What is the home range (MCP and Kernel) and movement in time and space? What are human – lion conflict and responses of lions to traditional herding in time and space? What…

Research using the ALMA telescope by scientists including Leiden's John Tobin and Steven Bos has produced the first images of the water snow line within a protoplanetary disc. Publication in Nature on 14 July.

Reseachers of the Institute of Environmental Sciences Leiden (CML) have contributed to a debate in the Journal Nature over whether lions in Africa can only be saved with dollars and fences.

No procession of professors, just a handful of people in the church and snowdrifts outside Leiden’s Pieterskerk: 8 February 2021 was no ordinary Dies Natalis. Carel Stolker transferred the rectorate to Hester Bijl, and Annetje Ottow became the new President of the Executive Board. With an honorary doctorate…

Promotor: E.F. Smets, Co-promotor: J. Geml

Political scientist Matthew Longo (Leiden University) takes a detailed look at the evolution of border security in the United States after 9/11. Far from the walls and fences that dominate the news, he reveals borders to be thick, multi-faceted and binational institutions that have evolved greatly in…

On 8 February 2021 Leiden University celebrated its 446th anniversary.

A lot of our research is performed at temperatures close to absolute zero, among other reasons because this increases the sensitivity of the measurements. 

A neolithic settlement on the Dutch North Sea coast c. 3500 CAL BC.

During your stay at Leiden University it's a great idea to join a student or sports association. It's the perfect way to get to know people quickly and build a network, whilst also being a whole lot of fun.

The oldest university in the Netherlands was founded on 8 February 1575 in the Pieterskerk in Leiden. This was at the time of the Eighty Years’ War with the uprising of the northern provinces against domination by the Spanish.

If you are new to Leiden, it might be a good idea to join one of its many student associations. You’ll quickly get to know people and build up a network that will continue to prove its worth long after you’ve graduated from your master’s.

Seven large reproductions of works by Rembrandt on seven University buildings in the centre of Leiden reveal the relationship between the painter and the University. Rembrandt van Rijn enrolled in the University in 1620 and painted the portraits of various alumni of the University. The exhibition runs…

Between the 29th of April and the 2nd of May 2016 the Botany Club went on its annual excursion. This time, the theme was alpine and arctic plants and their ecology, and (peri-) glacial processes and features. Where better to search for arctic/alpine plants and experience glacial geomorphology than…

The current migration flow into Europa demands effective measures. Leiden experts examine whether these measures are legal and hold up a mirror to policy-makers.

Leiden has so much to offer in the areas of sport and culture. Irrespective of whether you fancy burning off some calories after a day’s studying or perhaps spending your evenings rehearsing with an amateur drama group, you’re covered.

Raymond Corbey holds a chair in both Philosophy of Science and Anthropology at the Faculty of Archaeology, to which he has been attached since 1993. The faculty’s 'embedded philosopher', as Dean Kolen likes to call him, is hard to pin down in terms of the usual specialties at the faculty because of…

When Daan van Esch, master’s student in Chinese Studies, travelled through China last summer, he noticed that he often did not understand what the inhabitants of the different villages and cities were talking about. There turned out to be huge differences within the language. He decided to map this…

Farmers on the outskirts of Nairobi National Park protect their livestock using flashing lights on top of the animal enclosures. This system keeps lions away at night. Leiden research has shown that the method is both simple and effective. Publication in PLOS ONE.

Three students of Leiden University’s “MSc. ICT in Business” programme, Erwin Marges, Stefan Zhelyazkov and Georgios Valouras, have been awarded with the prize of Galileo Master of the South-Holland region, for their business plan idea “SnowMate Alpine Assistant”.

On Saturday November 16 Alice Twemlow was awarded the Simon Mari Pruys prize for design criticism for her essay ‘Conflicting Definitions of Key Terms’.

This spring, Fordham Press will publish the book “Crimmigrant Nations: Resurgent Nationalism and the Closing of Borders”.

The six-feet society is being built up rapidly; arrows and planes made of tape, circles and stripes of chalk, fences and other barriers are popping up around us. Danica Mast, PhD-student at LIACS, collects photos of all these solutions on her website www.1meter50.nl, now that her research is partly…

Leiden University investigates biodiversity not only in the Netherlands, but also abroad, with the goal of improving global nature conservation. We do so in collaboration with local universities. Education is also high on our agenda.

Dr Kim Duistermaat (NVIC) en Niels Groot (TU Delft)

Curiosities from the anatomical theatre, swords from the fencing school and 17th-century portraits of the University's founders. The new University Room in Museum De Lakenhal portrays the turbulent first hundred years of Leiden University.

Minims are letters that are made up of short, vertical pen strokes, such as 'm', 'i', 'n' and 'u'. In Gothic script, there is often little distinction between letters composed of minims. Assistant professor of medieval literature Krista Murchison has written an article in History Today on the hidden…

From BBC film shootings to a video of snowy Leiden and from bikes in the canal to our birthday, the Dies Natalis. This was our year in 12 Facebook posts!

Globalization, migration, technological innovation and climate change pose challenges to citizens in European countries. These challenges test the limits of cross-national and cross-generational solidarities, touching upon the very foundations of governance and society. This research program aims at…

Leiden University has seen another successful season of the European Law Moot Court Competition come to an end.

From the influx of migrants to the Ukraine referendum: Europe is playing an ever bigger role in our lives. Leiden scientists shed light on developments in Europe and examine the impact of the Union on the lives of its citizens. Read more in the new research dossier on Europe.

Lions limit their prey, such as zebra and gnu, in their options for adapting to global warming. This is what Leiden researcher Michiel Veldhuis, from the Institute of Environmental Sciences, and a group of international colleagues have discovered. The research was published today in Nature Ecology &…

At this year's Leiden Canal Run (Singelloop) on 5 April, €4.44 per runner will go to charity instead of the usual €4. This is because Leiden University is donating the symbolic sum of 44 cents for each runner who enters the race.

In his new book 'The Politics of Borders', Leiden political scientist Matthew Longo redefines the concept of a ‘border’.

A new bill is currently under debate in the Netherlands, advocating raising the prison sentence for manslaughter from 15 to 25 years. ‘This very serious crime (...) evokes feelings of disgust and insecurity in society’, Dutch Minister for Justice and Security Grapperhaus comments on the sentence that…

Conference

It is exactly one year ago that the university had to close, bang in the middle of the academic year. Suddenly, on that third Monday in March, we found ourselves at home, working and studying online – many of us from that cramped attic or student room. The momentous coronavirus year in pictures.

Before founding their American colony, the Pilgrim Fathers first lived in Leiden in the early 17th century. This group has no fewer than nine American presidents among its descendants. The University played an important role in the Pilgrims’ life in Leiden.

Large-scale forest fires started by prehistoric hunter-gatherers are probably the reason why Europe is not more densely forested. This is the finding of an international team, including climate researcher Professor Jed Kaplan of the University of Lausanne and archaeologist Professor Jan Kolen of Leiden…

Astronomers from Leiden University have discovered that the star wind from a newborn star in the Orion Nebula prevents more stars from forming in the immediate vicinity. They made the discovery with data from the SOFIA observatory. This was announced by co-author Xander Tielens during a press conference…

With a trip through the Netherlands, the preparations for the graduation of the Master Cyber Security had already started weeks ago. The apotheosis took place on Thursday, the 11th of February. A report of a digital graduation ceremony.

On Monday 10 December, the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights dr. Adam Bodnar delivered the eighth Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecture on Human Rights at Leiden Law School. The event marked the annual celebration of International Human Rights Day, which was proclaimed to commemorate…

The Netherlands is informal, friendly and welcoming. Everyone can feel at home here, regardless of religion, ethnic background or sexual orientation. The Dutch speak many languages and the countryside and cities are easy and safe to travel through, by any means of transport. No matter where you come…

Mark Rutgers has been reappointed as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. After a first term where the focus was mainly internal, it’s time to look outwards.

Leiden physicists and international colleagues from Geneva and Barcelona have confirmed the mechanism that makes magic-angle graphene superconducting. This is a key step in elucidating high-temperature superconductivity, a decades-old mystery central to physics, which may lead to technological break…

The disparities in terms of health and wellbeing in The Hague are considerable. A team headed by Jet Bussemaker, professor in the field of policy and society, wants to change that. The 'fences' in the healthcare system have to be got rid of. In particular the Laakkwartier and Moerwijs, two poorer areas…

There’s a Stone Age house at Broekpolder, near the city of Vlaardingen. It wasn’t built by prehistoric people but by modern archaeologists from Leiden University and volunteers from a local initiative known as Broekpolder Federation. They used replicas of Stone Age tools, such as stone axes and chisels…

In high school, Tim van Erven read about an artificially intelligent algorithm that could solve mazes. From that moment on, he was sold: ‘There’s something magical about algorithms. With a list of fixed rules you can make them learn the most diverse things.’ This year, he won a Vidi grant, which he…