Femicide is a serious issue in the Netherlands: around 40 women are murdered each year. Yet the circumstances surrounding these deaths are not recorded. To change that, Marieke Liem, Professor of Security and Interventions, launched the Femicide Monitor. ‘To develop effective interventions, we need to understand what’s really happening.’

The Leiden University Thesis Prizes were awarded on Alumni Day on 15 February. The nominees came with their family and friends to the Kamerlingh Onnes Building for the award ceremony for these annual prizes for the best theses.

As a sixth-year medical student at Leiden University, Marianne van der Vaart got the chance to reseach pain perception in infants. With a LISF-scholarship, she travelled to Oxford to work on her computer model at the university's department of pediatrics.

Invasive aquatic plants are finding their way to the Netherlands with increasing ease. The same is true for mosquito species. This can endanger public health, for instance through mosquito-borne disease, and biodiversity. Ecologists Emily Strange and Michiel Veldhuis are researching whether there is a link between the increase in invasive floating aquatic plants and mosquitoes. With support from LUF, the researchers hope to implement their programme on an international scale.

Leiden University and Unicef have already been working together for ten years to increase and share information on children’s rights. They are extending this cooperation. Professor of Children’s Rights Ton Liefaard explains what has already been achieved and what he wants to achieve in the next five years.

In the Alumni Room at the Faculty Club on Rapenburg, a new named fund was established on 7 September 2022: the Bouwens Astrophysics Fund. This fund was established by Dr Rychard Bouwens, an associate professor at the Leiden Observatory, who wants to give young researchers the chance to develop their skills.

Riet Groenen was able to spend almost a year in Fiji for her thesis research on fertility and family planning thanks to donations from funds. Her studies, research experience and focus earned her a job at the United Nations. Groenen dedicated her career to women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, and to ending violence against women.