In 2021, Thijs Bosker and Paul Behrens — both Associate Professors in Environmental Sciences — received funding from the Leiden University Fund and the Gratama Foundation to develop tangible and practical exercises that help people to deal with environmental issues from a local perspective. Now, two years later, they've created a free online course and have reached over 1,000 students by incorporating their materials into existing courses. They tell us about the results so far and what's coming next.

Youth crime has plummeted in the Netherlands. Good news, you might think. Yet we need to look critically at existing sanctions, says Professor by Special Appointment André van der Laan in his inaugural lecture. ‘We should evaluate whether our response is just.’

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.

Exercising is generally good for your health. In addition, it proves a cheap and effective treatment of common cardiometabolic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Not only because it increases energy levels, it’s anti-inflammatory, too. But what if you can’t do sports or exercise because of a serious illness, like cancer?

Professor of Governance of Sustainability Eefje Cuppen researches sustainability transitions and takes social values such as equity and equality into account. How, for example, can we reduce CO2 in a way that is fair?

Michiel Veldhuis is looking for answers that our world urgently needs. As an ecologist working on the Liveable Planet interdisciplinary programme, he researches the impact of global climate change on the African savanna.