News

: Counter-terrorism, a question of performance; ‘What's important is not whether the government adopts a soft or hard attitude to terrorism, but how they react to it,' historian Beatrice de Graaf stated on 28 January at the first conference organised by the Centre for Terrorism and Counter-terrorism (CTC). She also presented her book ‘Theatre of anxiety’ (in Dutch).; Read more

Local elections

On March 3rd 2010, local elections will be held for every one of the 441 councils in The Netherlands. Expats who are citizens of EU member states and are registered as residents of a council are entitled to vote in these elections.

: A personal physician or care manager for everyone; ‘The problem is that medicine chops people up into separate specialisms,' according to specialist in geriatric medicine, Rudi Westendorp, who will deliver the Dies lecture on 8 February. He advocates an integrated system of healthcare and a coherent approach to the human body. 'We are pushing the limits of the added value of medical specialisation.'; Read more

: Four Vicis for Leiden researchers; Leiden has scored highly with the recent Vici awards. Of the 31 Vici winners announced by NWO, 4 are researchers in Leiden. The winners are: Professor of Family and Child Studies Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, information scientist Peter Grünwald, astronomer Linnartz and Professor of Buddhism Boeddhisme Jonathan Silk.; Read more

: Late diagnosis of rare bone disease; Patients with the rare bone disease SCCH in many cases live with symptoms for years before being properly diagnosed. This increases the likelihood of developing chronic pain or even becoming disabled. Researchers in Leiden published an article on this subject in ‘Arthritis Care & Research’.; Read more

A musical history of Southeast Asia

To write its history based on the popular music of Southeast Asia. This is the aim of a research project conducted by anthropologists Henk Schulte Nordholt, Patricia Spyer, Peter Keppy and Bart Barendregt. ‘Popular music is an outstanding source to use in the debate about modernity.’

: Leiden photo collection in The Hague Photo Museum; ‘If you are passionate about photography, you couldn't have a better job than this.' Saturday 23 January saw the opening of the exhibition entitled 'Photography! A special Collection from Leiden University' in the Photo Museum in The Hague. This is the first exhibition organised by Maartje van den Heuvel in her position as curator of the Leiden collection. She makes this comment on her job as we make our way to her large, rather untidy room scattered with piles of papers and folders, and featuring a large wooden desk.; Read more

Programme for Student Assistants in Research

Would you like to gain research experience in your own field? Would you like to know more about the way scientific research is conducted? Are you a bachelor’s student and can you take on a second programme in addition to your regular programme? Then send in your application for the Programme for Student Assistants in Research (PSO).

: Why are plants not black?; All kinds of reasons have been put forward for why plants apparently fail to make maximum use of the available light. None of these reasons can explain why after two billion years of evolution they are not black, like industrial photovoltaic solar cells. Are we missing something?; Read more

: University invests strongly in research profile areas; The Executive Board has decided to award each of the University's eleven research profile areas a subsidy of € 1 million over the period from 2010 to 2014. The LUMC is also contributing to the subsidies in the research areas in which the LUMC participates.; Read more

: Grammar, boring? No way!; In the Middle Ages, the teaching of Latin grammar and rhetoric was the cornerstone of a good education. Generations of young people were taught according to a tradition that dated from classical antiquity, but was subject to constant change. Ineke Sluiter has brought these textbooks together in a weighty volume.; Read more

: ‘Migraine increases the risk of brain damage’; People suffering from migraine have an increased risk of incurring brain damage. Neuroradiologist Mark Kruit came to this conclusion after having put hundreds of Dutch citizens through an MRI scanner. There is no reason for panic yet, as we do not know what the effect will be. He defended his doctoral dissertation on 20 January.; Read more

: Migraine and depression: common genetic factors; It is no surprise that migraine causes people who suffer from it to be depressed. Their depression does not, however, originate from headaches but from a genetic predisposition. A team of researchers from Leiden and Rotterdam has published an article about this topic in the journal Neurology.; Read more

: Expat centre Leiden opens its doors; Vice-President of the Executive Board Willem te Beest and Leiden’s Councillor for Economic Affairs Marc Witteman will open the Leiden Expat Centre on Thursday 21 January. The Centre is housed in the Visitor Centre Leiden, which opened last year on the Stationsweg.; Read more

Two young chemists win Marie Curie subsidy

The Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) is to be joined by a further two talented young chemists. Bela Bode and Michele Pavanello have each won a Marie Curie subsidy. Bode will be studying electron transport in photosynthesis and Pavanello will be using computer models to study charge transport in large molecules.

: Navigation to the cubic millimetre in Medical Delta; Many surgical interventions are already possible using MIS. But this technique calls for completely different skills on the part of the surgeon. 'Trainee surgeons first ought to train in a ‘skills lab’, something like a flight simulator,' Frank Jansen will suggest on Monday 11 January at his inaugural lecture.; Read more

: Urbanisation forces blackbirds to evolve; For some time blackbirds have been settling in towns as well as in woods. As a result, town blackbirds have now begun to develop differently from their counterparts in forests. These are the findings of the PhD research carried out by behavioural biologist Erwin Ripmeester who defends his dissertation on 15 December.; Read more

: Major European subsidy for Leiden evolutionary biology; Paul Brakefield, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the Institute of Biology in Leiden (IBL) has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for his research. He will receive 2.5 million euro to develop his research programme over a period of five years.; Read more

: ‘Please only use this piano by conventional keyboard playing’; Playing the piano with your forearm, plucking the strings, sawing through the piano: pianist Luk Vaes's doctoral dissertation covers all the techniques of play for which a piano is NOT designed. His defence ceremony will consist of three concerts and a public defence. 'Musicians were using the interior of their instruments 'as early as 1790.'; Read more

: ‘Migrant adolescents benefit from limited assimilation’; We are constantly hearing in the public debate that migrant adolescents have to integrate, and preferably assimilate. 'This is a misconception,' is the opinion of remedial education specialist Mitch van Geel. ‘Young migrants who retain their ethnic values have a better sense of self-worth and exhibit fewer behavioural problems.' He defended his PhD dissertation on this subject on 9 December.; Read more

: Photosynthesis works with valves; Photosynthesis is the origin of life on earth, but it is a phenomenon that is still barely understood. Take, for example, the extremely efficient mechanism of electron transport. Leiden researchers demonstrate for the first time where one particular cause of this might be found.; Read more

: LUC The Hague, Opening in September 2010; Leiden University College The Hague is an international honours college of Leiden University situated in the world’s capital of Peace and Justice. LUC The Hague provides a unique combination of world-class scholarly depth, drawn from the oldest university in the Netherlands, with a cutting-edge and globally conscious curriculum that capitalises on its location in the vibrant, international atmosphere of The Hague.; Read more

: Wanted: ethnic talent; The selection process for the various awards for ethnic talent - to be presented in March 2010 - has started. This year the prizes will include a new award: the NOS Media Award. Do you know a highly talented student from an ethnic background? If so, make sure they know about these awards. Maybe you yourself fit this bill. Put your natural modesty to one side and apply.; Read more

: Functional networks in healthy and sick brains; Are disturbances to the brain, such as Alzheimer's or autism, linked to specific defects in the underlying communication networks in the brain? If this is the case, subtle changes in the networks can act as a marker for brain disturbances. Neuroscientist Serge Rombouts will be investigating this, together with a national consortium of researchers.; Read more

: Ethics and international law; Some judges feel less comfortable with the motto ‘the law is the law’ than soldiers feel with ‘orders are orders’, posits Dame Rosalyn Higgins in her Cleveringa lecture to be delivered on Thursday 26 November. This is the dilemma that formed the crux of Cleveringa's lecture 69 years ago.; Read more

: World-famous Dmanisi skull in Leiden; The Dmanisi skull is the oldest example of a hominin skull to be found outside Africa. It therefore plays a crucial role in the debate on the migrations of our ancestors. The skull was into Schiphol airport on Friday 27 November to be exhibited in Naturalis. The exhibition opened with a symposium led by Spinoza prize winner Wil Roebroeks.; Read more

: Success for Leiden with Vidi subsidies; NWO has awarded a Vidi subsidy to a total of 89 young and innovative researchers. Leiden researchers have won twelve of these subsidies and three subsidies have gone to the LUMC. Each researcher will receive up to 800,000 euro to develop a particular research theme or to set up a research group.; Read more

: Video storybooks promote language development in children in high-risk groups; Multimedia additions to traditional storybooks increase the understanding of language and the vocabulary of children in high-risk groups. This is the discovery made by PhD researcher Marian Verhallen . ‘The structural use of video storybooks in teaching reduces the likelihood of learning difficulties.'; Read more

: Songbird passes grammar test using mnemonics; Songbirds apparently use mnemonics rather than more complex grammatical rules to recognise structures in which they have been trained. Leiden behavioural biologist Caroline van Heijningen published an article on this subject on Tuesday 17 November in PNAS.; Read more

: NWO subsidies for digital revolutions and black photography; Four Leiden professors have been awarded almost a million euros to spend on research. There are two pairs of researchers: Peter Pels (anthropology) and Chris Goto-Jones (Japanese), and Patricia Spyer (anthropology) and Robert Ross (history). Each pair will receive € 450,000 from NWO's Cultural Dynamics Programme.; Read more

: Eleven million euro for transplantation for type 1 diabetes; People with type 1 diabetes can now produce insulin themselves thanks to the transplantation of islets of Langerhans. Because there is a shortage of organ donors and it is difficult to use these islets optimally, this treatment is only available for a small group of patients. A sum of 11 million euro has been made available to develop this cell replacement therapy further and to make it available for a larger number of patients. A large part of the funds has come from the Economic Structure Enhancing Fund (FES) in the context of the Topinstituut Gezond Ouder, Ti-GO.; Read more

: Bacteria evolve gambling behaviour; In an unpredictable environment bacteria evolve the same strategy as shareholders who try to protect themselves against unpredictable swings in the stock market. Experimental evolution biologist Dr Bertus Beaumont published an article on this discovery on 5 November in the journal Nature.; Read more

: 25 years of Public Admistration: a marriage between research and practice; This year the department of Public Administration will have been existence for 25 years. Dr Frits van der Meer was there almost from the start. It would be impossible for a department to find a better advocate. A historian on the importance of public administration.; Read more

: Breakthrough against chronic genital infection with HPV16 virus; Stimulation of the immune system can help combat a chronic infection by the human papilloma virus. This is the outcome of research by the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine.; Read more

: Wat do PAHs do in space?; Xander Tielens, Professor of Physics and Chemistry of the Interstellar Space, has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant to study polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in space. The combination of astronomical observations, computer models and lab research makes the research highly interdisciplinary.; Read more

: Start of Honours College; In the coming period, the top 20% of first-years from each programme will be invited to register for the Honours College that is due to start in the second semester. The Honours College offers talented and motivated bachelor's students with an strong academic interest the opportunity to follow an extra track comprising a minimum of 30 study points.; Read more

: The evolutionary added value of sex; Asexual procreation in female wasps leads to an accumulation of genetic mutations, and the shrivelling of their sex organ. Leiden biologist Ken Kraaijeveld published this discovery in Evolution. His research is one of the first experimental studies into the consequences of asexual procreation.; Read more

: 18 Veni subsidies for Leiden; This year, NWO has awarded a Veni subsidy to 143 young researchers who have recently obtained their PhD. 17 of these researchers are at Leiden University and one works at the LUMC. The successful applicants will each receive 250,000 euro to develop their ideas and carry out research over a period of three years.; Read more

: Eveline Crone wins Science and Society Prize; At the tenth Evening of Science and Society, on Monday 2 November in the Ridderzaal in The Hague, Eveline Crone won the Science and Society Prize for her research into the child and adolescent brain and the way in which she makes her work accessible to society.; Read more

: First KNAW Merian Award for Naomi Ellemers; Naomi Ellemers, Professor of Social Psychology of the Organisation, is to receive the first KNAW Merian award for women in science in recognition of her excellent scientific research and her active commitment to equal opportunities for women in academia.; Read more

: Wealthy nobleman's grave from prehistoric times; Leiden archaeologists have found hundreds of minute bronze artefacts in the grave of a wealthy prehistoric nobleman. The grave is to the south of Oss, beneath one of the largest burial mounds in the Netherlands. The young ruler was given a ceremonial burial here 2600 years ago in a unique and extensive ritual burial ground from the late prehistoric period. The finds will be presented on Thursday 5 November in the Jan Cunen Museum in Oss.; Read more

: Three Leiden women among 100 most powerful in Netherlands; Vice-Rector Rietje van Dam-Mieras and Professors Ernestine van der Wall (Religious Studies) and Els Goulmy (Transplantation Biology) have been named by news magazine OpZij as among the hundred most powerful women in the Netherlands. The list is headed by Agnes Jongerius, chairman of the FNV.; Read more

: Subsidy for appointing ethnic minority student assistants; Leiden University is to receive a subsidy from the Social Fund for the Knowledge Sector to appoint ten ethnic minority student assistants.; Read more

: Climate change and irrigation systems; A change in climate in Mesopotamia led to the development of a new shared identity. The communities in the Zerqa valley in Jordan have been building irrigation systems for 13,000 years, but the irrigation systems also built communities. This is the conclusion reached in two PhD dissertations in the field of archaeology.; Read more

: Joint first place for Leiden University in Elsevier survey; Students awarded the highest scores to Leiden University and the Radboud University Nijmegen. These are the findings of an annual survey by Elsevier into the best study programmes in the Netherlands. Elsevier Magazine has a weekly readership of half a million, making it one of the most iinfluential Dutch weekly publications. Elsevier regularly publishes special editions, entitled Elsevier THEMA, on such subjects as fashion, living and, as in this case, education.; Read more

: Poisonous colours increase chances of sexual success; Warning colours ensure that predators remember that certain prey are poisonous. But now it appears that the colours of poisonous Panamanian frogs are also influenced by fastidious females: partner choice can also lead to colour change in these frogs, as Leiden researcher Martine Maan has reported in PNAS.; Read more

: Paul van der Heijden opens new international ‘common room’; On 20 October, Rector Magnificus and President of the Executive Board, Professor Paul van der Heijden, opened the new international common room in the Regens Collegii. The opening was performed in traditional style with the cutting of a ribbon.; Read more

: Brains that don't read well; Illiteracy is a major problem in the US. Leiden education specialist Paul van den Broek was flown to Washington DC by the National Academies of Sciences to inform them about cognitive and neurological research into reading comprehension. He will deliver his inaugural lecture on 2 November.; Read more

: Consortium including LUMC awarded 22.5 million to link databases; A national consortium of health researchers has been awarded a government subsidy of 22.5 million euro to link their medical research databases. Professor Gertjan van Ommen: ‘This is an enormous impetus for epidemiological and biomedical research.’; Read more

: Major subsidy for interdisciplinary research into biofuel; The Barbados nut or Physic nut (Jatropha curcas) produces a high quality oil that is suitable for use as a biofuel. Promising tests have been done with this oil in the aircraft industry. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research are financing a five-year research project headed by the Van Vollenhoven Institute.; Read more

: Leiden Bio Science Park acclaimed best business park in the Netherlands; On 8 October, the Leiden Bio Science Park won the Menzis award for the Best Business Park 2009. The jury particularly praised the fact that 25 years ago when the park was founded, the choice was made in favour of the biomedical life sciences, a specialisation still successful today.; Read more

: GPs should have a scientific role in society; Ninety per cent of all medical care is delivered via primary care providers, but scientific research is not part of their remit. On Friday 16 October Research Professor Jacobijn Gussekloo will deliver her inaugural lecture entitled: 'We can carry on for years. On minor complaints, prevention and geriatric medicine.'; Read more

: Wiser with wisebits; ‘Is it possible to get used to absolutely anything?’ ‘In science you can't lie.’ On 16 October, as part of the Key of Life festival, two series of wisebits will be shown at the Central Station. The project is a co-production by the RVU (an educational media company) and Leiden University.; Read more

: Folded DNA unravelled; Leiden physicist Maarten Kruithof has discovered how our DNA is infallibly able to fold itself and to unfold again. In his dissertation he demonstrates how DNA is folded in a single long, very flexible spiral.; Read more

: New light on dark matter; An international team of astronomers has found an unexpected link between dark matter and visible stars in stellar systems. This discovery may even cause us to reconsider our understanding of gravity. They published on their discovery in 'Nature' on 1 October.; Read more

: Professor Judi Mesman receives ERC Starting Grant of € 1.6 million; Professor Judi Mesman of the Department of General and Family Studies has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Professor Mesman will be studying the possible differences in upbringing between boys and girls within the family.; Read more

: Islam adviser to Obama at Opening of Leiden Islam Centre; Wednesday 14 October will mark the start of the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS), with a conference on Islam, Science and Public Policy. Mayor Cohen of Amsterdam will present his scientific questionnaire, and Dalia Mogahed, Islam adviser to President Obama, will talk on ‘What a billion Muslims really think.’; Read more

Dalia Mogahed speaker at LUCIS opening conference

Dalia Mogahed, adviser to President Obama, will speak at the LUCIS opening conference on 'Islam, science and policy’ on 14 October 2009, Academy Building, Leiden University, 09.00-17.30 hrs.

: Leiden University College The Hague to start in September 2010; Leiden University is to launch its University College in The Hague in the 2010/2011 academic year. The Executive Board confirmed this decision on 29 September 2009 following approval from the Supervisory Board and the University Council.; Read more

: The x-factor of trauma surgery; Trauma surgery, previously a neglected branch of medicine, needs to be placed firmly on the map. This was the message delivered by Inger Schipper, Professor of Trauma Surgery, on Monday 28 September in her inaugural lecture. Schipper is the only female professor of surgery in the Netherlands.; Read more

: How genes are reused; Minor changes in genes can lead to major diversity. Patricia Beldade has been awarded a Vidi subsidy by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research to research how existing genetic 'shifts' evolve for the development of organisms and contribute to the development of new characteristics such as colour patterns on butterfly wings.; Read more

: ‘Gentle Giant’: exceptional African leadership; You could call John Kufuor, former President of Ghana, a white raven among the African leaders. On 25 September he was the guest of the Africa Study Centre. His presidency had a Leiden connection.; Read more

: Leiden University Medical Centrer returns human remains to Australia; At the request of the Australian government, the Leiden University Medical Centrer (LUMC) will officially return to the country Australian human remains that are currently held in the LUMC's collection. They will be accompanied to Australia by Bundjalung elders.; Read more

: ‘Consider ambiguous religious identities’; Scholars of religion think all too easily in terms of the major religions, without considering whether this is necessarily the most sensible way of understanding religious reality. And it definitely isn't, according to Professor of Comparative Religious, Ab de Jong, in his inaugural lecture.; Read more

: Strange spinning binary star explains 30-year enigma; An international team led by Leiden astronomers has discovered why the two stars of binary star DI Herculis rotate so strangely around one another, which once even proved problematic for Einstein's theory of relativity. Their findings were published in Nature.; Read more

Two hundred and fifty year old prize for study of evil

The five-yearly prize for studies of theology and Christian ethics has this time been awarded to Dr Petruschka Schaafsma for her study of evil Reconsidering Evil: Confronting Reflections with Confessions. The prize was awarded on Monday 14 September 2009 in the Academy Building of Leiden University.

: Freek Vonk gets his own show on Discovery Channel; Biologist Freek Vonk had already appeared in the Time Warp programme, where he was shown milking a snake for its venom, which he needed for his doctoral research. On Friday 18 September, he explained his fascination for snakes to Matthijs van Nieuwkerk in ‘De wereld draait door’, a Dutch news and entertainment programme.; Read more

: 30 million for Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity; Leiden University, together with Naturalis and the Universities of Amsterdam (UvA) and Wageningen, has set up a single centre for biodiversity. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) has committed 30 million euro for this initiative from funds available from natural gas reserves.; Read more

: Eco-friendly farmers do what they say; Farmers who commit to environmentally friendly working methods also actively practise nature conservation in their farming - particularly when this is not financed by the government. These are the findings of research carried out by Anne Marike Lokhorst, who will receive her PhD on 17 September based on this study.; Read more

: Minerva's new grant system; Student association Minerva will shortly be awarding its first grants to students to want to carry out a special or exclusive project as part of their study. Minerva is the first student association in the Netherlands to take this initiative.; Read more

: Ethnicity as risk factor for pregnancy complications; The number of mothers who become seriously ill as a result of a pregnancy is rising in western countries. Joost Zwart has studied the frequency and the risk factors of this serious form of maternal morbidity and has also looked at factors that might indicate shortcomings in healthcare. Zwart: 'Policies in this area are already changing.'; Read more

: Beauty and science in Florence; Gert Jan van der Sman is fascinated by the relation between humanism - the scholarly world of the 16th and 17th centuries - and art. He will deliver his inaugural lecture on Friday 11 September. 'Science can be a something of a straitjacket, so I want to loosen the bonds.'; Read more

: Understanding the game of marbles; Not many scientists can claim to have received funding from NWO to blow bubbles and play with sand, but Martin van Hecke definitely can. Van Hecke, Professor of the Organisation of Disordered Matter, delivered his inaugural lecture on Friday 4 September, under the enigmatic title of: ‘Bellen, bollen, ballen’ (that translates roughly to: Bubbles, Grains and Balls).; Read more

: Start of Academic Pabo in Leiden and Rotterdam; On Tuesday 1 September, Secretary of State Marja van Bijsterveldt officiated at the opening in the Academy Building of the Academic Teacher Training Programme for Primary Education, more simply referred to as the Academic Pabo. This combination study is provided by the Pabo Hogeschool Leiden, Pabo Thomas More Rotterdam and Leiden's Institute of Child and Education Studies.; Read more

: ‘LIBC Junior is bursting with new ideas’; How does the brain develop from birth up to adolescence? And why are young people given so little information about the development of their brain? Two new websites of the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition provide an answer.; Read more

: Former Secretary-General of NATO to be appointed professor; Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is to become the first holder of the Kooijmans chair for Peace, Law and Security at Campus The Hague. He will lecture on international politics and the practice of diplomacy. 'I see this role as an important opportunity for me to act as ambassador for Leiden University.'; Read more

: Alexander Pechtold guest speaker at opening of Academic Year; Alexander Pechtold, chairman of the parliamentary party for D66 in the House of Commons, will deliver the opening speech at the start of the new Academic Year on 31 August in the Pieterskerk. Pechtold himself graduated in Art History and Archaeology in Leiden, after a false start with Law, and was also a member of the Municipal Council in Leiden.; Read more

: Leiden University Excellence Scholarships (LexS) awarded; The Leiden University Excellence Scholarships Programme (LExS) provides scholarships for excellent international students from outside the EU/EEA who come to Leiden to follow a master’s programme. The first eighty LExS scholarships have been awarded for this academic year.; Read more

: 'New' Academy Building: a functional and historic monument; Following the official opening by Queen Beatrix on 31 August, the Academy Building will again resume its role as the heart of activities for Leiden University. After an extensive restoration, lasting three years, the building has now been brought up to date and is ideally suited to host Leiden's many ceremonial events, whilst at the same time preserving its historic character.; Read more

: Combining a business and a study? Yes, it can be done; Starting a business and passing your first year of a Law study in one year with a 7.5 average... Joost Mengerink managed both these, and even more: he is one of the five finalists for the Student Entrepreneur Prize. The prize will be awarded on 1 September: maybe to ‘RegistratieVrij’?; Read more

: Genome size of wild tulips determined; Leiden researcher Dr Ben Zonneveld has determined the size of the genome - the amount of DNA per nucleus - of wild tulips. His conclusion is that there are more than 87 wild species. Various possibly new species have been discovered.; Read more

: Language evolution down to the individual; Language change is comparable with the evolution in the plant and animal world. In language there is variation in word choice, meaning or pronunciation. According to PhD candidate Frank Landsbergen, an individual language user can set evolution in language in motion.; Read more

: Wrestling with SUMO proteins; The work done by SUMO proteins in the cells of our body is of vital importance. Molecular cell biologist Alfred Vertegaal has been studying these proteins for nine years, first with a Veni subsidy and then with a prestigious Vidi subsidy.; Read more

: Casimir Research School to receive € 800,000 for talented PhD candidates; The Casimir Research School is to receive an € 800,000 subsidy from the NWO Graduate Programme to further integrate the master's study and PhD research. Minister Plasterk judged the Leiden-Delft Casimir plan to be one of the best.; Read more

: Two research schools partnered with Leiden University participate in Graduate Programme; The Casimir Research School and the Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences will be participating in the first Graduate Programme.; Read more

: Queen Beatrix to open newly renovated Academy Building; On Monday 31 August, Queen Beatrix will perform the opening ceremony for Leiden University's newly renovated Academy Building. The Academy Building's roof construction has been restored and the interior has been completely renovated.; Read more

: Villagers steal meat from lions; Researchers from Leiden see hungry villagers in the north of Cameroon steal meat from the prey of lions.; Read more

: New chance for the Philippine crocodile; Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Sciences hope that by releasing fifty Philippine crocodiles bred in captivity, they will be able to speed up the recovery of the crocodile population.; Read more

: The unexpected role of IL-27 in atherosclerosis; One of the pleasant aspects of research is that unexpected things sometimes turn up on the periphery of the research. During her master's internship, Ornélia Ramos conducted research into the role of the protein IL-17 in hardening of the arteries. At the same time, she also carried out some additional work on IL-27. But it was this protein that gave some surprising results. Ramos has been awarded a Mosaic subsidy to conduct PhD research into IL-27.; Read more

: Mosaic subsidies for highly talented ethnic minority researchers; Four of Leiden's young, talented ethnic minority graduates are to receive an award as part of the Mosiac programme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The award will allow these budding researchers to fund a four-year research period leading to a doctorate.; Read more

: What happens when two galaxies collide?; When galaxies collide, do the black holes at their centre form a supersized black hole? This is what we think happens, but it's not as simple as that, according to Simon Portegies Zwart. Zwart, computer scientist and astronomer, has been awarded a VICI grant to research this phenomenon.; Read more

: Patient to become partner in scientific research; All patients treated in the LUMC for a number of chronic illnesses and forms of cancer will at the outset of treatment be asked to provide data for scientific research. This is one aspect of CuraRata, a new healthcare system integrating research and patient care.; Read more

: Leiden receives two major NWO subsidies for conflict research; NWO has honoured a total of 11 applications on the theme of Conflict and Security. Two of the applications are from Leiden. Dr Carsten Stahn of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Campus The Hague received half a million euro for research into the effects locally of international criminal interventions.; Read more

: 25 million euros for research into energy from plants and algae; On Friday 10 July the Towards Biosolar Cells research programme was granted a budget of 25 million euros by the Dutch Government. The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality recommended the programme because it will contribute to green energy, improve food supplies and a create a more sustainable biomass.; Read more

: Borderline between cancer and thrombosis; Winning a prestigious award for PhD researchers, even before you have your doctorate: that's what Yascha van den Berg managed to do with his research proposal on alternatively spliced tissue factor, a protein that may be involved in tumour growth. Van den Berg: ‘It all started as a Friday afternoon experiment.'; Read more

: Resolution of electron microscope greatly improved; The use of a new type of detector has generated a strong improvement in the resolution of electron miscroscopes. The 'low-energy electron microscope '(LEEM) can now be used for reseach on the thinnest materials possible. The tests with the detector represent the first result of the ESCHER project.; Read more

: European master's in maths; More than twenty international students have received an ALGANT diploma, the master's in Algebraic Geometry and Number Theory from the Mathematical Institute, in collaboration with other European universities. Anti-bureaucratic creativity was needed to align all the rules with those Brussels.; Read more

: Proud of the new Leiden Visitor Centre; ‘I'm so proud,' says Agta Kockmann, manager of the new Leiden Visitor Centre (VCL). The fully integrated visitor centre for the city and the University opened its doors officially on 1 July, exactly eleven years after Leiden University started its own reception centre for visitors in the Central Station.; Read more

: 'Fall of the Wall' had dramatic effect on East German professor corps; After the Fall of the Wall, higher education in the former DDR was radically reformed. What were the consequences of this for the professors of the Humboldt University in Berlin? Adriaan in 't Groen was awarded his PhD on this subject on Monday 29 June.; Read more

: Excavation of Merovingian settlement provides wealth of information; A former course of the Rhine with a hundred-metre-long, oak retaining wall for the dike, house foundations, wells, pottery and bones. This is just a selection of the findings from four weeks of excavation by students from the Faculty of Archaeology on a site next to Corpus alongside the A44.; Read more

: Dame Rosalyn Higgins to be new Cleveringa professor; Dame Rosalyn Higgins is to be the new Cleveringa professor. She will commence her professorship by delivering the Cleveringa lecture on Thursday 26 November. Higgins was the first female judge to be appointed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.; Read more

: Widow endows Casimir fund for interdisciplinary physics; This summer, the Casimir Research School celebrates its first lustrum. To mark the occasion and to commemorate the fact that Hendrik Casimir would be 100 this summer, his widow Josina Casimir-Jonker has endowed the Research School with a fund to support the activities of master's students.; Read more

: Physical reality of string theory demonstrated; String theory has come under fire in recent years. Promises have been made that have not been lived up to. Leiden theoretical physicists have now for the first time used string theory to describe a physical phenomenon. Their discovery has been reported this week in 'Science'.; Read more

: First step in converting solar energy using 'artificial leaf'; Two things are needed to produce fuel from sunlight: an antenna that harvests light, and a light-driven catalyst. The most efficient antennae contain bacteria. An international team headed by Huub de Groot imitated them and discovered how they function.; Read more

: Major European subsidy for membrane fusion; The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded chemist Dr Alexander Kros a Starting Independent Researcher Grant of 1.4 million euro. He will be using the grant to study how molecules penetrate the natural barrier of a cell membrane. If his research is successful, it will in time bring about a revolution in how medicines are administered.; Read more

: Old solutions popular in credit crisis; The credit crisis affects many different domains of law. The Legal PAO is therefore organising a symposium on Tuesday 30 June on: 'The credit crisis: the state of affairs and what needs to happen.' Old solutions are popular in the opinion of Professor Bob Wessels, who is chairing the symposium.; Read more

: Millions for Education and Child Studies; A research project into the social integration of Turkish children in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway has been awarded a major subsidy by NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Co-operation in Europe). The Dutch part will be led by Dr Judi Mesman and Professor Rien van IJzendoorn.; Read more

: Newly discovered gene regulates balance of 'bad' cholesterol; In an article in Science, Noam Zelcer from the LACDR describes a previously unknown mechanism for regulating the amount of LDL cholesterol. This offers opportunities for supplementing and improving the effect of so-called statins: medicines that remove 'bad' cholesterol from the bloodstream.; Read more

: Ultra-thin material absorbs all the light; It appears to be a paradox: ultra-thin material that absorbs all the incident light. Nonetheless, it does exist. Two Leiden researchers report on their research in ‘Applied Physics Letters’. The article is among the Top 20 of the most downloaded articles of this reputable journal in May.; Read more

: ‘Don't underestimate Ahmadinejad’; Even if the pro-reform Mir Hossein Mousavi had won the presidential election last Friday, the authoritarian nature of the Iranian regime would not have changed fundamentally, in the opinion of political scientist Peyman Jafari.; Read more

: First Dutch Neanderthal; The discovery along the coast of Zeeland of a bone remnant of a Neanderthal man is the first of its kind in the Netherlands. Wil Roebroeks hopes that ‘Krijn’ will be the key to research and conservation of the North Sea floor archive. The fragment of a skull was unveiled by Minister Plasterk in the National Museum of Antiquities on Monday 15 June.; Read more

: Intellectual giftedness is more than IQ; Intellectual giftedness is more than IQ alone. This is the proposition of psychologist Dr Marcel Veenman. Together with the ICLON he will be researching this hypothesis among participants in the Pre-University College. The project was recently accepted for funding by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.; Read more

: Molecular mystery in space; The space between the stars isn't simply a void; it also contains substances such as methanol and carbon dioxide. So far, chemical theories have been unable to explain how these substances originate under circumstances that should make it impossible. Fedor Goumans has been awarded a Veni subsidy to try to resolve this mystery.; Read more

: Eating for the sake of eating; Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is the most common but least well understood eating disorder. One per cent of the Dutch population are sufferers. Alexandra Dingemans wrote her dissertation on the disorder and researched a successful therapy: 'Patients no longer have to face this problem alone.'; Read more

: Co-operation between Palestine and Leiden Archaeology renewed; On 8 June the Faculty of Archaeology and the Department of Antiquity and Cultural Heritage (DACH) of the Palestine Ministry of Tourism and Antiquity signed an agreement in Ramallah on the West Bank. The aim of the agreement is renewed and sustainable co-operation in the field of archaeology.; Read more

: Christians in the Middle East caught between Islam and the West; Christians in the Middle East are often regarded as the outpost of the West. But this vision ignores the particular characteristics and development of Christianity in the Middle East. This will be the message of Professor Heleen Murre-van den Berg in her inaugural lecture on Friday 12 June.; Read more

: Double Honorary Doctorate for Owada; Professor Hisashi Owada, Professor by Special Appointment in Leiden, has been awarded a double Honorary Doctorate by the University of Groningen.; Read more

: Spinoza prize for 'migraine professor' Michel Ferrari; Neurologist Professor Michel Ferrari has been awarded the Spinoza prize. 'In biomedical research you can only make breakthroughs at the borders between sciences,' according to Spinoza, doctor and scientist. 'This prize is proof that co-operation works.' Together with clinical and fundamental researchers from different fields he is little by little unravelling the puzzle that is migraine.'; Read more

: Plant species disappear and reappear; The disappearance and reappearance of species of plants in the Netherlands is a normal phenomenon. In the period from 1981-2000 the number of plants to have disappeared was considerably lower than previously, whereas the number of species rediscovered is much higher. Climate change may be the cause.; Read more

: Two worlds of diversity; From 25 to 29 May the theme of Diversity was in the spotlight throughout the University. The photo series gives an impression of the many and varied activities that were arranged on this theme, and master's student Lian van der Krieke experiences how important diversity is in later professional practice. Two aspects of diversity, but very different.; Read more

: Illnesses also have a cultural dimension; I had my first official introduction to cultural diversity in physical health and sickness during the programme on Intercultural Psychological Phenomena. I learned that depression occurs throughout the world, but that it is manifested differently according to the culture.; Read more

: West reads East; The study of modern literature from the Middle East with Nobel Prize winners such as Pamuk and Mahfoez, is relatively new and there is as yet little international co-operation. The workshop on ‘West Reads East’ held in Berlin on 23 and 24 May is the first of its kind. Petra de Bruijn reports.; Read more

: What does the security manager do?; Leiden University has a security manager, a post that has been filled for the past two years by André Morsman. 'Escape routes, emergency exits, fire hazards, evacuation drills, these are all well organised within the University and everyone understands the systems. But security is a different matter. And these days, we can't afford to neglect security.' Part four of a series about unique positions at Leiden University.; Read more

: What does the ombudsperson do?; The University has an ombudsperson for students: Professor Tineke Willemsen, who was recently re-appointed for a period of three years. What does her job consist of? Part three of a series of interviews about university officers and their jobs.; Read more

: Visit of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet; Monday 25 May saw the visit to Leiden of President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, accompanied by Queen Beatrix and Princess Máxima. Following a talk in the Academy Building on strengthening democracy in Latin America, the President signed a number of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).; Read more

: BABELonian untwisting of tongues; Three important subsidies, each worth € 200,000, have come to Leiden. The aim of the EuroBABEL research theme is to study languages threatened with extinction, and to use the findings of this research in forming general theories about language. A total of five projects were given awards.; Read more

: Prose as experiment; Prose was once a daring experiment. Up to the thirteenth century all Dutch literature was in rhyme. Then Dutch authors started to discover prose. In his Veni project, Dr Joost van Driel has been researching why authors opted for prose.; Read more

Iranian refugees write hybrid literature

Esfaindyar Daneshvar Tehranizadeh (1974), born in Iran, moved with his mother and father to France when he was ten years old. His rather, a writer, was already living in France. This background partly determined the subject of Daneshvar's doctoral research. Daneshvar was awarded a Mozaic subsidy for his research.

: The arms industry in the Bronze Age; Technical tours de force cast in bronze with no other purpose than that of serving as a lethal weapon: swords. Manufacturing such items required a multiciplicity of technologies. David Fontijn will be using his Teaching Prize to trace the production process and to gather teaching materials.; Read more

: Islamic law in practice; The world was recently shocked by the news that Sharia was being introduced in the Swat valley in Pakistan. But what does this mean for the inhabitants of the region? Dr Nadia Sonneveld intends to investigate this funded by the Rubicon subsidy she recently received.; Read more

: Emotional problems of children in Uganda lead to medicalisation; Medical anthropologist Grace Akello-Ayebare has carried out research into orphan children growing up in Gulu in North Uganda, a region plagued by civil war. Emotional problems lead to somatisation and extensive use of medication. Akello-Ayebare obtained her PhD on Wednesday 20 May.; Read more

: Light doesn't always reflect in the same way; A bundle of focused light that falls on a mirror behaves differently from a bundle of parallel light and doesn't conform to the law of reflection formulated in classical times. Researchers report on their finding in the journal Nature Photonics.; Read more

: Week of diversity focuses on awareness; The Week of Diversity that starts on Monday is intended to make staff and students more aware that there is a world beyond Leiderdorp or Belgium. Globalisation is a fact: 29% of first-year students at Leiden University do not have a 'Dutch-Dutch' background.; Read more

: Where were comet crystals formed?; Silica crystals can only form in a red-hot environment. Whereas comets originate in the icy cold outer regions of the solar system. Then how do these crystals come to be found in comets? A team of researchers provide the answer in Nature.; Read more

: The quest for more antibiotics; Streptomycetes are similar to moulds, but these bacteria live in the soil. They are very popular in biotechnology because they produce a great many antibiotics and enzymes. Gilles van Wezel will be using his Vici subsidy to study ways of increasing their production.; Read more

Why there was no industrial revolution in China

Four Global History experts will be in Leiden on Monday and Tuesday next week at the invitation of Leiden's history students. They will be debating the role of the state in The Rise of the West, Europe's great escape from the general pre-industrial pattern. An interview with Peer Vries, Professor of Economic History in Vienna.

: Super-fast evolution; Certain cichlid fish in Lake Victoria seem to have adapted super-fast to changing circumstances. Dr Frans Witte from the Integrative Zoology section has been awarded an NWO subsidy (approx. € 240,000) to carry out PhD research into the rapid changes apparent in this fish species.; Read more

: Spinning electron positioned with nanometer precision; A team of researchers has been successful in positioning a single spinning electron on a chip with nanometer precision. This opens up the path to quantum chips with selected nano-elements. The results have been published in the journal Applied Physics Letters.; Read more

: Researchers determine the structure of very efficient light-harvesting antennae in green bacteria; An international team of scientists, including researchers from two Dutch universities, Leiden and Groningen, has resolved the structure of chlorophyll in chlorosomes of green bacteria. Chlorosomes are the light-harvesting antennae of these bacteria. They are elongated small pockets which can accommodate up to 250,000 chlorophyll molecules.; Read more

: Time periods are a poor instrument; Dutch-expert Olga van Marion is conducting research into the literature of the Golden Age, approached from a new perspective. Her ideas on the subject have earned her a Veni subsidy. 'The Middle Ages, like classical antiquity, belong to the literary world of the Early Modern Period, but we are not yet sure how.'; Read more

: Sweden's royal couple visit Leiden; In the context of their state visit to the Netherlands, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden paid a visit to Leiden University on 22 April. The couple were accompanied by Prince Willem Alexander and Princess Máxima. There were two main issues of societal relevance on the day's agenda.; Read more

: Teaching, Chinese-style; That Chinese lecturers think differently about teaching from Dutch lecturers is well known. But what exactly are those differences, and what causes them? To find the answer, Wu Wei conducted a survey among lecturers at Leiden University.; Read more

: ‘Sustainability is the key theme for a broad-based university'; Sustainability is a complex, scientifically interdisciplinary theme that affects all levels, from local to global. Anywhere you go in the University, you will come across isues related to sustainability, whether in teaching or in research. This will be the message of Vice-Rector Rietje van Dam, in an address on 7 May as part of the General Lecture Series 'Focusing on Foreign Policy'.; Read more

: Digital fiascos in autobureaucracy; Every citizen regularly comes into contact with the digital face of the government. Behind that face there is a world of implementing organisations, registration systems, applications and links between processes. Why this system increasingly fails is addressed by Frans Jorna in his PhD dissertation.; Read more

: A week immersed in solar biofuels; The Honours Class From Solar to Fuel with Bio consisted almost entirely of the workshop on Solar Biofuels from Micro-organisms that drew more than eighty specialist researchers to Leiden's Lorentz Centre in late March/early April. Students Erica Wenker (chemistry) and Jasper van Dobben de Bruijn (law) wrote an impression of the Honours Class.; Read more

: Planet formation: food for thought; Planet formation is a surprisingly homogeneous process that does not take place gradually from inside out, but that occurs everywhere at the same time in a proto-planetary disc, as Dave Lommen has discovered. He will obtain his doctorate this week based on his research into the dust around young stars observed using telescopes.; Read more

: New in Leiden: Computer science and economics; In a survey held last year by the publication Elsevier, Leiden's Computer Science programme was voted by students as the best university programme of its kind in the Netherlands. And the Rotterdam Economics programme was voted the best in its field. Leiden University now offers a combined study based on both programmes: Computer Science and Economics.; Read more

: DNA folded in compliant helix; A further step on the way to understanding gene expression. In an Advance Online Publication in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology biophysicist John van Noort and others show using magnetic tweezers that DNA is folded in compliant helices of chromatin. This allows enzymes access to the DNA needed for gene expression.; Read more

: What does a business scout do?; Since 17 September 2008 the University has had a business scout: Jan de Leeuw. He works at LURIS for the Business to Science Portal (B2SP) that puts small and medium-sized businesses in the region in contact with scientists. But what exactly does a business scout do?; Read more

: Poetry and the justification of violence; Without the element of mysticism in his philosopy Khomeini would never have come to power. Mystic concepts dating back to the Middle Ages play a significant role in 20th century Iranian politics. In his Vidi project, Asghar Seyed-Gohrab will investigate precisely what role that is.; Read more

: In search of the pro-conception pill; With IVF, test-tube fertilisation, women are administered the required hormones by injection. This is a painful procedure, which can have unpleasant side-effects. Laura Heitman will obtain her PhD on 22 April based on the discovery of substances which could be administered in pill form.; Read more

: Paul Hooykaas Academy Professor; Professor Paul Hooykaas, Professor of Molecular Genetics at the Leiden Institute for Biology (IBL), has been appointed as Academy Professor by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).; Read more

: Help needed with identification; Very soon the roadsides and railway tracks will be a sea of yellow blossoms: is it oilseed rape (Brassica napus) or turnip rape (Brassica rapa)? And soon possibly with genetically modified wild oilseed rape? With a grant from the Commission on Genetic Modifications Dr. Sheila Luijten will try to answer the above questions.; Read more

: First Leiden student on internship via AIESEC; AIESEC is - for Leiden - a new international student organisation that mediates for international internships: AIESEC looks for internships here for international students and has a database with possible internship positions abroad for which Leiden students can apply. The first Leiden student to find an internship via AIESEC has just left for a position in Tanzania.; Read more

: Campus The Hague to hold Summer School; This summer, Campus The Hague will be offering five courses on current topics in the field of international criminal law, terrorism and counter-terrorism, Europe and the European Union, good governance in Africa and internet governance.; Read more

Sustainable energy from photosynthesis: ‘Europe mustn't lag behind.'

Plants, algae and bacteria convert sunlight into chemical energy. In a workshop held by the Lorentz Center researchers will review the possibilities for using and imitating this process of photosynthesis, with a view to producing sustainable fuels.

: Brutish ape-men, with high-pitched voices; They are no longer regarded as brutish, club-wielding savages. But their subsequent label as gentle vegetarians is also outdated, as is their image as peace-loving but not very intelligent scavengers. Gerrit Dusseldorp obtained his PhD on Thursday 2 April based on new insights into the Neanderthals.; Read more

: Arabisation is not necessarily Islamisation; The Arab conquest of Egypt was not a watershed. It took centuries before the majority of the inhabitants became Muslim. The spread of the Arabic language was much more rapid. This is the message of Professor Petra Sijpesteijn in her inaugural lecture on Monday 6 April.; Read more

: New library organisation, new opportunities; The development of a new library organisation has its difficulties, but it also creates new opportunities, such as for extending the opening hours and facilitating the fast-moving developments in the digital field. These are the thoughts of chief librarian, Kurt De Belder.; Read more

: New research centre for studying planet and star formation; The ALMA Local Expertise Group (Allegro) is located in the Leiden Observatory (Sterrewacht). Professor Ewine van Dishoeck: ‘The Netherlands has played an important role in establishing ALMA. Thanks to this subsidy, we can now reap the scientific benefits.'; Read more

: A joint doctorate - for better or for worse; A joint doctorate doesn't happen often, but on 24th March the second will be held this year. Marije Koopmans and Idske Kremer Hovinga have obtained their doctorate based on one dissertation. In parallen with their medical studies, they have worked together in the pathology department at the LUMC for several years conducting research into chimerism.; Read more

: ‘Discrimination is more serious than we thought’; Discrimination can lead to minority groups withdrawing from society. This is the warning issued by PhD candidate Katherine Stroebe. ‘Discrimination has more serious consequences than was previously realised.'; Read more

: Graphene is a thoroughbred that has to be tamed; Electrons in graphene behave like light particles; they have no mass and can penetrate everything: very useful if you dream about nano-electronics. But you do have to channel them. Carlo Beenakker will be researching how. He has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of 1.5 million euro to carry out this research.; Read more

: Millions of people to help with new synthetic skin cream; A team of researchers has managed to recreate the most natural skin cream in existence. Using the DUBBLE beamline in Grenoble, they have analysed the composition and structure of vernix caseosa – the skin cream in which newborn babies are covered. Robert Rißmann obtained his PhD on Tuesday 17 March.; Read more

: The reliability of news reporting; On Nieuwscheckers.nl students from Journalism and New Media check the facts in the news. Are the figures correct, what exactly was said, how reliable are the sources? There is one thing they agree on: there are plenty of errors to be found.; Read more

: Three Rubicons from and to Leiden; Two young researchers will be coming to Leiden to continue their research, and one will be leaving Leiden for a prestigious research institute in London. NWO has awarded them a Rubicon subsidy to pursue their research.; Read more

: Studying and obtaining your PhD with the excellent student programme; Rob de Lind van Wijngaarden is still a junior doctor, yet he has almost completed his PhD. He is the first PhD candidate from LUMC's excellent student programme whereby students can conduct PhD research during the bachelor's phase.; Read more

: Jewish-Islamic parallels; ‘More comparative research is needed into the position of Muslims and Jews in Western Europe. There are so many obvious similarities between the two groups that you cannot ignore them. Yet comparisons are seldom made,' says Professor of Judaism Judith Frishman in her inaugural lecture.; Read more

: LIBC Symposium: meditation changes brain activity; Meditation has the reputation of being vague and woolly. Some neuroscientists have a different opinion: meditation has measurable effects on the brain. They will present their findings on Friday 20 March during the first symposium of the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC): ‘Imag(in)ing the buddhist brain’.; Read more

: Major European subsidy for Leiden's Humanities; The idea of Vidi winner Dr Geert Warnar to set up an international training network for PhD researchers to study the exchange of ideas in the late Medieval period has attracted a European subsidy of in excess of a million euro. LURIS was instrumental in turning a good idea into a successful subsidy application.; Read more

: Leiden PhD researcher wins NASA Hubble Fellowship; Leiden PhD researcher Karin Öberg is one of the 17 winners of the NASA Hubble Fellowship. When she has obtained her PhD this autumn she will move to the United States for three years to conduct post-doctoral research into the role of ice in star formation.; Read more

: Stem cells: between hype and hypothesis; Currently, the benefits to patients of embyronic stem cell therapy are extremely limited. However, re-programmed adult cells offer good modalities for studying disease and testing medicines. In her inaugural lecture on Monday 9 March Christine Mummery will review 10 years of embryonic stem cell research.; Read more

: Vice-Rector Rietje van Dam: ‘Studying should be less free and easy’; The first part of the report of the Study Success task force will shortly be made public. The measures proposed in the report aim to have students complete their studies more quickly and with a lower drop-out rate after the first year. The message is: students and university have to keep their minds more on the study to make the study a success.; Read more

: ‘Social support for dialysis patients not always effective'; ‘There is a clear relation between how a kidney patient experiences his or her health, and mortality,' says Melissa Thong, who will obtain her PhD on Thursday. 'Patients who experience their health as 'poor', 'reasonable' or 'good' have a higher death rate than those who rate their health as 'excellent' or 'very good'.; Read more

Arab economies and western intellectual trends

Egyptian economist and author Galal Amin will give the fourth Snouck Hurgronje lecture on 6 March, entitled: Fifty Years of Economic and Intellectual Dependence: Arab Economic Development and the West. Amin: ‘The economic achievements of independence do not weigh up against the political prize.’

: Leiden University wants more women in top jobs; On 5 March, Vice-Rector Professor Rietje van Dam-Mieras signed the ‘Talent to the top' charter, committing Leiden University for five years to target figures for appointing more women to more senior university jobs.; Read more

: Pride and respect essential for volunteers; Volunteers play a key role in many organisations. Yet, little is known about their recruitment and motivation. Emphasising the success of a volunteer organisation is often counter-productive as it can give the impression that there is no need for new volunteers, Edwin Boezeman has established from his doctoral research.; Read more

: What triggers rheumatism?; Why does one person with inflamed joints develop rheumatism, while in another person the disease disappears? And why do some people respond well to medication while others do not? An interdisciplinary European consortium with LUMC as initiator and co-ordinator will be studying how the biological processes underlying these questions work.; Read more

: Sick from stress; Stress: why does it make one person ill and not another? Genetic differences in the working of stress hormones may offer an explanation, according to research carried out by Vera Brinks. She defends her dissertation on 19 February.; Read more

: New: Leiden research profile and year book; During the celebration of the Dies Natalis on 9 February 2009 Rector Magnificus Professor Paul van der Heijden presented a new edition of the University Year Book this year entitled 'Developing Knowledge' and a brochure on the Leiden research profile ' Crossing Borders in Fundamental Research.'; Read more

: Iran: 30 years of the Islamic revolution that never was; In the night of 11 to 12 February 1979, revolutionaries in Iran took over the national radio and television stations and announced their victory, thereby officially ending the regime of the Shah. But how Islamic was the Islamic revolution? Professor Asef Bayat will address this question as one of the issues he will discuss in a lecture on 12 February.; Read more

: Ewine van Dishoeck shows us new worlds in Dies lecture; Her specialist field is molecular astrophysics, and she is the most quoted scholar in her field. In this, the year of astronomy, she is the ideal person to give the Dies lecture at the university with the world's oldest astronomy institute; it goes without saying that the lecture will be on the newest developments in the field.; Read more

: Inspiring teaching for more students; 'There is increasing competition between universities for sufficient resources for teaching and research. We will have to work even harder to remain at the top.' President of the Executive Board and Rector Magnificus Paul F. van der Heijden unveils the draft Institutional Plan for 2010-2014.; Read more

: Rank or be ranked; On 6 and 7 February the International Office of Leiden University is organising its third international symposium on ranking. 'Ranking is a game,' according to Dr Robert Coelen, Director of the International Office. ‘But you don't have any choice; you have to take part.'; Read more

: Colliding protein beads reveal DNA; Nucleosomes, the beads of the chain in which DNA is wound, are much more dynamic than was previously assumed and they regularly collide with one another spontaneously. In such a collision, one of the nucleosomes loses a piece of protein that together with the neighbouring nucleosome forms a larger bead. This causes a piece of DNA to be released that was originally hidden in two original nucleosomes. This process could be a first step on the way to reading DNA.; Read more

: Honorary Doctor Susan Fiske in colloquium on stereotyping and inter-group relations; During this year's Dies celebrations, Professor Susan Fiske will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate by her honorary supervisor, Professor Naomi Ellemers. One day later, on 10 February, the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences will organise a symposium focusing on the work of psychologist Professor Fiske. During the symposium research will be presented where the classical problem of stereotyping will be examined using new methods (such as neuro-imaging and cardio-vascular indicators).; Read more

: MicroRNA: so small but so very important; The discovery in 2001 of the importance of microRNAs turned the world of molecular biology upside down. The small pieces of RNA also attracted the attention of university lecturer Erno Vreugdenhil. Vreugdenhil: ‘Within five to ten years the first microRNA-directed medicines will come onto the market.’; Read more

: Writing on the plastic of ancient times; A chest containing inscribed sherds of pottery turns up on an English estate. A group of papyrologists set to deciphering and describing the ‘ostraca’ from the island of Elephantine in the Nile close to Aswan. How did they find their way to an English estate, and what is the story behind their journey?; Read more

: Centuries-old letter gives up its secrets; A letter containing a lock of hair sent from St. Eustatius to a loved-one at home lay for centuries unopened in a London archive. Professor Marijke van der Wal recently opened this hi-jacked letter - one of almost 38,000. The activities of her research programme will be reported on line starting this week.; Read more

: Leiden Excellence Scholarship (LExS) scheme launched; The Leiden University Excellence Scholarships (LExS) scheme will assist the most excellent students in realising their dream of studying at Leiden University. This strategic move expresses the desire of the Executive Board to recruit talented students to Leiden University, ranked as one of the world's top institutes for teaching and research.; Read more

: Scaliger year opens with laudation; Wednesday 21 January 2009 marks the 400 year anniversary of the death of Josephus Justus Scaliger. The life of this eminent French humanist will be commemorated throughout the year by a range of activities. Professor Anthony Grafton, the most noted expert on the work of Scaliger, will start this celebratory year with a laudation to Scaliger.; Read more

: Prestigious international subsidy for Korean language and culture; The department of Korean Language and Culture has been awarded a prestigious Korean subsidy of 700,000 euro for the project on History as Social Practice: Unconventional Historiographies of Korea. The subsidy will be spread over a period of five years.; Read more

: The experience of noise disturbance; Unfair policies increase the perception of noise as a disturbance, while fair policies reduce this perception. This is the conclusion of environment psychologist Eveline Maris on the basis of two laboratory studies. She is due to obtain her PhD on Wednesday 17 December.; Read more

: Racism and Extremism Monitor; On Wednesday 10 December, Jaap van Donselaar, Leiden specialist in public administration, and Peter R. Rodrigues will present the eighth report of the Racism and Extremism Monitor. The monitor reports on such issues as racially motivated violence and expressions of extreme right-wing sentiments. The monitor is part of a project by Leiden University and the Anne Frank Foundation.; Read more

: Window on the Russian world; The Russkiy Mir Foundation is to open a Russian Institute at Leiden University. The agreement was signed on Tuesday 9 December. The Foundation is planning to open Russian Institutes at educational institutions throughout the world to promote Russian language and culture.; Read more

: Getting to know the real China; With 850 million native speakers, Mandarin (Standard Chinese) is by far the most widely spoken language in the world. And with China's booming economy it is no surprise that an increasing number of school pupils are choosing to learn Chinese (Standard Chinese). A new Leiden teaching method will be unveiled on Thursday 4 December.; Read more

: Ethnic talent to conquer science; She is female and foreign; she graduated with distinction and has a PhD. Could she be seen as a threat to the established scientific elite? Serena Does, winner of a Mosaic subsidy from NWO believes that majority groups can be motivated to regard the rise of minorities more positively.; Read more

: New interpretation of the Kama Sutra; Herman Tieken has already explained in a previous newsletter that the Kama Sutra is not a sex manual. It was only once he had completed his translation that he saw what no other indologist had previously seen. The book is a parody of a treatise on kingship. Tieken's translation was published last week.; Read more

: The right to fair-trade chocolate; What have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, civil law, the 'catalogue of values' of Minister Guusje ter Horst, and socially responsible business got to do with one another? Everything, in the opinion of Alex Geert Castermans, Professor of Civil Law. He will deliver his inaugural lecture on Friday 28 November.; Read more

: Religion influences what people see; Calvinists pay more attention to detail than do atheists. This has been demonstrated by research carried out by psychologist Lorenza Colzato. She is the first to show that subconscious and automatic processes allow religion to influence how people experience the world.; Read more

: HOPE interests students in entrepreneurship; Wednesday 12 November saw the official opening of the entrepreneurship programme HOPE in the Cruise Terminal in Rotterdam. Within this Holland Program on Entrepreneurship three South Holland universities are working together on promoting entrepreneurship and business enterprise among students.; Read more

: Leiden Genomics Centres win NGI Valorisation award of 1 M euro; Five Centres of the Netherlands Genomics Inititiative, of which the LUMC or Leiden University is co-ordinator, last week won the first NGI Valorisation Award worth 1 million euro. The award was presented to Professor Gert-Jan van Ommen, Director of the Centre for Medical Systems Biology.; Read more

: Foster care for chimpanzees successful; In a unique experiment at the Yerkes primate centre in Atlanta Leiden education specialists Rien van IJzendoorn and Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg and colleagues from the University of Portsmouth have demonstrated that young chimpanzees benefit from four hours a day personal attention. The researchers expect the same effect in children.; Read more

: A question of decency; There is no shortage of brave people, but people with civil courage are a different matter, according to Professor Ian Buruma in the Cleveringa Lecture which he will deliver on Wednesday 26 November. Cleveringa himself is a good example. It is quite common for people with civil courage to to be relegated to the periphery of society.; Read more

: Socio-cultural anthropology much older than assumed; The multicultural background of German-speaking scholarsin eighteenth century Russia forms the basis of socio-cultural anthropology. Their ethnological style of thinking already developed duringthe eighteenth century, states Han Vermeulen. In his dissertation he places these ideas in their historical and political context.; Read more

: Between completely closed and accessible; ‘There's nothing new under the sun,' was the message given by Mark Meadow in his inaugural lecture on 11 November. 'Since as early as the fifteenth century, the institutions which generate, safeguard and disseminate knowledge have been typified by conflict between inclusion and exclusion, accessibility and security.’; Read more

: Integration issue is of all times; Integration never runs smoothly and always takes at least three generations, according to Herman Obdeijn and Marlou Schrover in their book ‘Komen en gaan’ which was published last week. The government itself complicates integration by emphasising the differences of groups of migrants.'; Read more

: Knowledge migrant Christina Tobler as case study for her own inaugural lecture; Christa Tobler, Professor of European Law, has Swiss nationality. In EU terms, she is therefore a 'third-country national'. In her inaugural lecture on Friday 7 November she will use herself as a case study to discuss the law of the European Community relating to these 'third-country nationals'.; Read more

: Use of COS Funding Alert expected to grow rapidly; The less structural funding universities receive for research, the more important external sources of funding become. For the past eighteen months Leiden University has had a subscription to the Community of Science (COS), a database that notifies researchers of funding and subsidy opportunities relevant to their field. The use of COS is expected to grow rapidly.; Read more

: Traces of Dutch 'Hunger Winter' in genetic material; Conditions in the uterus can give rise to life-long changes in genetic material. People in their sixties who were conceived during the Hunger Winter of 1944-45 have been found to have a different molecular setting for a gene which regulates growth. Researchers from the LUMC are the first to demonstrate this effect. They published their findings this week in PNAS Online Early Edition, together with colleagues from Columbia University.; Read more

: Legal-political bias in response to Islam; Prof. Maurits Berger is researching how Muslims in western societies shape their lives. His studies also include aspects of western society itself. Why does Islam act as such a catalyst in the social debate? Berger will deliver his inaugural lecture on 4 November.; Read more

: Extinct cave bear yields its DNA; The cave bear became extinct 15,000 years ago, towards the end of the last Ice Age. A group of researchers have managed to isolate mitochondrial DNA from the breastbone of this bear species, which Prof. Hans van der Plicht has determined dates from 32,000 years ago.; Read more

: Susceptibility to tuberculosis genetically determined; The X-chromosome has a gene that influences the likelihood of contracting tuberculosis. This explains part of the difference in susceptibility between men and women and between different population groups, according to an article by researchers in the online journal PLoS Genetics of 10 October. Researchers from the LUMC are among the authors of the article.; Read more

: For whom did the gods dance?; In classical antiquity dancing was regarded as a tribute of honour to the gods. But in Greece the gods themselves were also keen dancers. The question is: in whose honour, wonders Dr Frits Naerebout, who is organising a conference on dancing in ancient times, from 23 to 26 October.; Read more

: Genes and the environment in upbringing: the importance of measuring; 'Education specialists have a role in research into the interaction between heredity and the environment in upbringing,' will be the key message of Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg's inaugural lecture on Friday. 'All too often the environment in which the child is brought up is assessed using just a simple questionnaire. That amounts to the same thing as trying to listen to birdsong while wearing earplugs.'; Read more

: Seeking an invisible cavity; Ninety per cent of all medicines are metabolised by a single type of enzyme. But it remains an enigma how medicines penetrate this enzyme. Peter Keizers has been awarded a Veni subsidy to study how the locus of activity can be reached.; Read more

: Research may contribute to peace; The longer a war lasts, the more successful the peace talks and the more enduring the peace. Madeleine Hosli, Professor of International Relations, has drawn this conclusion from an international collection of war studies. She delivered her inaugural lecture on 14 October.; Read more

: Coffee and Parkinson's; Many models which have formed the basis of novel drug design may be incorrect. This is the sobering and at the same time very important discovery mde by two Leiden researchers from the Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Reserch (LACDR).; Read more

: Sunbathing around young stars; The ultraviolet radiation caused by the formation of new stars heats up much greater quantities of gas and dust that had previously been assumed. This cosmic 'sunbathing' prevents the cloud from further collapse and has an effect on the chemical evolution of low mass stars, such as our own sun. This discovery was made by Leiden astronomer Tim van Kempen, who will obtain his PhD this week.; Read more

: A brain full of contradictions; How do the brains of adolescents work, and more importantly: how do the different areas of the brain interact with one another? Developmental psychologist Eveline Crone has written a book about the uneven development of the adolescent brain. The book deals with the complex relationship between the learning, the emotional, the creative and the social brains of adolescents. Her book will be available in the bookshops next week.; Read more

: Who shapes international law?; International law is no longer made solely by national governments; non-state actors also play a significant role. Jean d'Aspremont has been awarded a Veni subsidy to study the redistribution of law-making. ‘It is trendy to exaggerate the impact of non-state actors, but whether or not that is justified remains to be seen.; Read more

: Honour and atonement in medieval Friesland; In medieval Friesland, if a person suffered an injury inflicted by another person, this was considered as an affront to his honour and he would be eligible for compensation. There were lists of fines for each type of injury, but the payment was often long in coming. Han Nijdam obtained his PhD on 2 October based on the Old Frisian registers of fines.; Read more

: Parkinson's at nanoscale; The protein alpha-Synuclein plays an important role in Parkinson's disease. But how it works and what it does to the nerve cells is still largely a mystery. Biophysicist Martina Huber uses electron spin resonance to provide new information about the binding of the protein with the nerve membrane.; Read more

: New international students in Leiden; The final information session for new international students was held on Tuesday 23 September. This brought to a close more than a month of activities organised by the University in an effort to see that the newly arrived international students could start their studies in Leiden as comfortably as possible. These activities are an alternative for the traditional EL-CID orientation week which takes place too early for most international students.; Read more

: The Kondo effect unravelled; Leiden physicist Sander Otte, together with a research team from IBM in California, has achieved a breakthrough in understanding a fascinating fundamental scientific phenomenon: the Kondo effect. This is a phenomenon whereby a large number of particles behave as one quantum mechanical unit. The discovery is reported this month in Nature Physics.; Read more

: From 12 years onwards you learn differently; Eight-year-old children have a radically different learning strategy from twelve-year-olds and adults. This can be seen on fMRI scans of the brain. Eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback. Twelve-year-olds and adults can benefit more from negative feedback.; Read more

: Snorting students underestimate effects of cocaine; XTC is out, coke is in. A worrying trend, according to psychologist and Veni winner Lorenza Colzato. ‘A lot of young people think that a line of cocaine now and then does no harm, but my research has shown that the opposite is true.'; Read more

: Common street violence or undermining of democracy?; Western democracies respond differently to national threats, even if they are bound to the same international treaties and experience similar threats at particular times in their history. Historian Beatrice de Graaf will be using her recently awarded Vidi subsidy to research how these differences can be explained in a historical context.; Read more

: Digital, individually tailored patient information is faster and more effective; Individual computer-generated information on the use of sleeping pills and tranquillizers is twice as effective as standard information. These are the findings of research carried out by psychologist Geeske Brecht ten Wolde. She will defend her dissertation on Thursday 18 September.; Read more

: Holiday hosting at sugar festival for international students; Muslims started Ramadan on 1 September. This is the holy month for Muslims, when they fast from dawn to sunset. After Ramadan, the Eid ul Fitr festival (Sugar Festival) is held, which symbolises the end of the fasting period.; Read more

: Investing in home-based childcare benefits the child; Where do children feel more comfortable: in day-care centres or in home-based environments? Research by Leiden education specialists led by Professor Rien van IJzendoorn shows that in home-based environments children have a higher level of wellbeing, the carers are more sensitive and there is less noise.; Read more

: Italian dialects and their exotic behaviour; The dialects of Italy are dying out. But, according to Professor Roberta d'Alessandro in her inaugural lecture, they are enormously valuable for research into Romance languages. Some aspects of their grammar are more similar to Basque, Georgian, Hindi and native Australian languages than to Italian and French.; Read more

: A glimpse in the delivery room of a solar system; The distribution and movement of molecular gas in the protoplanetary disk around young siblings of the sun may indicate that new planets have already been formed. This is the conclusion reached by an international team of astronomers, including Ewine van Dishoeck, Professor of Molecular Astrophysics, winner of the Spinoza prize.; Read more

: Bronze Age farmers less nomadic; The farmers who lived in the Bronze Age in the river areas of Maas and Waal were less nomadic than had been assumed to date. They would inhabit a farm for up to eighty years, and lived in small village settlements. This has been demonstrated by research undertaken by PhD researcher Stijn Arnoldussen.; Read more

: Science fiction or reality?; An elegant but very complex form of mathematics forms the basis of the entangled and knotted light structure which Dirk Bouwmeester, Professor of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, has been researching, together with colleague William Irvine from Santa Barbara. They have published on this subject in Nature physics.; Read more

: Mobile telephony in Africa benefits smaller towns; Most nomads in the Saharan countries have no mobile phone. Yet their lives are strongly influenced by this modern technology. Professor Mirjam de Bruijn will deliver her inaugural lecture on Friday 5 September on the influences of mobile telephony on marginal societies in Western and Central Africa.; Read more

: New Faculty of Humanities to have seven institutes; On 1 September the Faculty of Humanities will be a fact. The former faculties of Religious Studies, Arts, Creative and Performing Arts, and Philosophy will together form one new faculty.; Read more

: Paint molecules as informants; There is a world of difference between solid materials and liquids. Not a great deal is known about this strange world of solid materials. Molecular physicist, Professor Michel Orrit, has a mission. The European Research Council has awarded him an Advanced Grant to fulfil this mission.; Read more

: Marijn Franx to study earliest stellar galaxies; With his ERC (European Research Council) Advanced grant of 1.5 million euro Professor of Astronomy Dr Marijn Franx is planning to study stellar galaxies which produced light 13 billion years ago. This is half a billion years after the big bang. New telescopes and cameras for near-infrared spectroscopy should make this possible.; Read more

: One chromosome: a world of difference; Children with a sex chromosome abnormality should be diagnosed as early as possible, is what Veni winner Sophie van Rijn advocates. Currently, the condition often goes unnoticed, with the risk that the child's cognitive and social problems accumulate unnecessarily.; Read more

: Opening Academic Year with Minister Maxime Verhagen; ‘Changing world, constant values: foreign policy in the 21st century.' This is the title of the address with which Maxime Verhagen, Minister for Foreign Affairs, will open the Academic Year on 1 September in the Hooglandse Church. University historian Willem Otterspeer will present his latest book.; Read more

: During the EL CID introduction week Leiden belongs to the students; ‘On 3 October the town belongs to the people of Leiden, but during the EL CID week it is the students’ town.' This is what was said in ¿Que Pasa?, the EL CID daily newspaper, and that’s exactly right.; Read more

: Use of milk 3000 years older than assumed; Archaeologists have discovered that the Syrians milked cows as long ago as 8000 years. This finding is reported in Nature on 7 August.; Read more

: Slaving away at Avestan, Vedic and Sogdian; Some twenty students listen attentively to what Dr Michiel de Vaan, lecturer in Indo-European, is explaining about the grammar of Avestan. The students have come to Leiden from all corners of the world to attend the Leiden Summer School in Languages and Linguistics.; Read more

: Snakes were originally rear-fanged; Some species of snakes have a fang at the front of the mouth, others at the back. The origin and evolution of fangs which form in different places is the subject of long dispute among evolutionary biologists. A team led by Leiden researchers sheds light on the topic in a cover story in Nature of 31 July.; Read more

: Expedition to the oldest remains of the earth; Fourteen excellent students of geology, biology, astronomy and maths and several staff members have made a geological excursion to Australia. The aim of the Eendracht Expedition, organised by the Bioscience Initiative of the Faculty of Science, was to visit the very oldest remains of life and the earth's crust.; Read more

: A stradivarius is definitely different; Medical information scientist Dr Berend Stoel measures the density of emphysema lungs using CT scans. An American violin-maker reading Investigative Radiology asked him to compare the density of the wood of Stradivariuses and Guarneris with modern violins.; Read more

: Hunger for antibiotics; Many antiobiotics are produced by the family of bacteria known as Streptomyces. A team of biochemists has discovered that streptomycetes can be encouraged to make other types of antibiotics. This is an important discovery as dangerous pathogens are increasingly developing resistance to commonly used antibiotics.; Read more

: Roman boys will be boys; Did young people in ancient times with their responsible public functions mature earlier, or were they fickle, sometimes idealistic, adolescents? In the book Jeugd in het Romeinse Rijk (Young People in the Roman Empire), Leiden historian Johan Strubbe and his colleague from Leuven, Christian Laes, analyse a current debate. Do literary sources and inscriptions contradict one another?; Read more

: Major subsidy for Sterrewacht archive; With subsidies of 165,000 euro from the Teylers Museum Foundation, 125,000 euro from the National Conservation Programme Metamorfoze and 100,000 euro from the Gratama Fund, the archive of the Leiden Sterrewacht can now be preserved and digitised. Dr David Baneke will first make an inventory of the archive: ‘Without a good inventory, such an archive is no more than a pile of paper.’; Read more

News & events

News

Direct Links: