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.’

Leiden astronomy professors Ewine van Dishoeck, winner of the Kavli prize 2018, and Tim de Zeeuw, former Director General of the European Southern Observatory, have set up a Named Fund to stimulate young talent in science, both at Leiden University and in the Netherlands Antilles. The couple recently put their signature on the Van Dishoeck-de Zeeuw Fund.

A huge shiny aluminium object stands in the middle of the Polderlab in Oud Ade. Are the researchers trying to make contact with extraterrestrial life? Certainly not; they are using the 'moon landers' to measure whether innovative forms of agriculture reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Fleur van Duin works as a PhD student in the Polderlab and is excited about the arrival of the instruments.

A unique multicenter study, including about 3,500 youth between 10 and 25 years old from across the globe, shows that artificial intelligence - specifically machine learning - is able to identify individuals with anxiety disorders based on their unique brain structure.

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.

Why do innocent people sometimes spend years in prison? EUREX is a registry of miscarriages of justice in Europe that ultimately led to exonerations. The aim is to prevent such mistakes being made in future. One of the initiators is Leiden legal psychologist Linda Geven.

People with chronic intestinal inflammation, such as Crohn's disease, often have high numbers of the gut bacterium Ruminococcus gnavus (R. gnavus) in their intestines. But why? To answer that question, LUMC researchers have for the first time mapped the complete genetic code (genome) of this bacterium on a large scale. And to accelerate further research on R. gnavus, they are offering all data for free to other researchers.

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.

The Dutch universities and the Leiden University Fund are shocked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and empathise with all those affected by it. What is happening there is horrific, and we are deeply concerned about the ramifications for the Ukrainian universities and the academic community.

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.