To cover up their deportation plans which targeted Polish Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Nazis re-opened schools. In her inaugural lecture, historian Sarah Cramsey demonstrates with examples how care was used ‘as a weapon’ during the Holocaust. She also stresses that care is a unifying cement in society and calls for more historical research.

The figures are stark: each year, more than 500,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The most common and aggressive form, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), has a five-year survival rate of less than 10 per cent. LUMC researcher Marieke IJsselsteijn has developed a new method that allows her to study these tumours in unprecedented detail.

A book with a fake printer, a pamphlet with a treaty that does not exist and an execution print with a supportive crowd: just some examples of forgeries from the early modern Dutch Republic. They are exposed by LUC-historian Jacqueline Hylkema.

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.’

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.

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.