Before the Dies Festival for Alumni, friends, family, benefactors and thesis supervisors came to the Grotius lecture hall in the Kamerlingh Onnes building to celebrate the achievements of a group of young talents. These had been nominated for the Leiden University Thesis Prizes and the Schild-de Groen Research Prizes.

The purpose of the Leiden Empowerment Fund (LEF) is to ensure an environment in which researchers and students at Leiden University can fully realise their ambitions, regardless of their gender, cultural background, sexual orientation or physical disabilities. It does this by creating equal opportunities.

Military veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder often have symptoms that are both chronic and complex. Professor by Special Appointment Eric Vermetten is looking for new ways to help them deal with these. One possible medicine: party drug MDMA.

Medical oncologist and researcher Judith Kroep conducts research into ovarian cancer. She received €70,000 for her research project from the Willemijn Charity Golf Day crowdfunding campaign on steunleiden.nl.

‘If we all possessed just an ounce of Cleveringa, then all would be well in the world,’ said Professor Leo Lucassen. In the Cleveringa debate on the line between free speech and threatening speech he called for ‘more guts’. He is not the only one who thinks this is badly needed if the debate at the Academy Building on Wednesday evening between academics, politicians and journalists was to be believed.

One of our talented researchers is Anne-Laura van Harmelen. As Professor of Brain, Safety and Resilience, she studies distressing childhood experiences, such as abuse, bullying or trauma.