Real Life

Leiden University in 2007
Real Life

Leiden University in ����
Real Life

Foreword
Leiden University is an international research university which chooses for talent. Conducting outstanding scientific
research is therefore a high priority in Leiden. The practice of science is primarily a matter of curiosity and of acquiring
new knowledge and insights: this is the passion which drives every researcher. This passion is also the basis from which
our lecturers teach their students, because in a research university, education and research are inextricably linked.
Sometimes, new knowledge rapidly leads to relevant applications. However, it more frequently takes a number of years
before a fundamental step contributes to products or processes which enhance our prosperity, our wellbeing and our culture.
It is with this aim in mind that Leiden physicists strive to link even the most difficult fundamental research to real life,
whether this involves car catalysators or cancer cells. Drug researchers probe our cells for biomarkers for disturbances, so
that a timely and individually tailored diagnosis can be made of conditions such as diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases.
Leiden University is also a societally-oriented university. We are part of the social environment, and we are fully aware of and
interested in the problems and needs of our society. We see it as our task to seek answers and solutions to these problems
from a scientific perspective. Migration research, for example, has demonstrated that European migration history is an
exciting laboratory with numerous – at times bizarre – experiments from which a great deal can be learned, even today.
The findings of the research into terrorism and the application of law in the area of international terrorism are very relevant
for a safer world.
The extent to which the work of Leiden’s researchers is valued, acknowledged and respected is apparent from the many
awards and subsidies won by Leiden scholars in ����. These awards are both laudable and necessary for a university which
chooses to compete with the best universities in Europe. We are able to congratulate one such researcher, archaeologist
Wil Roebroeks, who is the eleventh Leiden professor to be awarded the Spinoza Prize since its inception in ����. Of the
�� winners of this prize, �� per cent have come from Leiden. Roebroeks was awarded this prestigious prize for his innovative
�

�
observations on early hominins and the development of human society. A further example is the million euro subsidy won
against fierce competition by Leiden biologists, which will enable them to develop medicines to combat age-related diseases
of bones and joints.
This Yearbook, published on the occasion of the ��� rd Dies Natalis, presents a picture of a year of scientific practice in
Leiden. We want to show you where we are concentrating our efforts. Naturally, this is by no means a complete picture; it is
no more than a glimpse of what we are capable of. But this selection of Leiden’s scientific achievements is rich and varied,
just as our university is rich and varied: from religious studies to linguistic research into dying languages, from research into
Neanderthals to age-related diseases, and from brain research to the issue of child abuse in the Netherlands.
We hope you will enjoy reading about these fine achievements by Leiden’s scholars.
Prof. Paul F. van der Heijden
Rector Magnificus/President of the Executive Board
Leiden University

Contents
Our brains are active, even when we are not �
From Allah to Zen: studying religions in Leiden ��
‘Some terrorists are only interested in their fifteen minutes of fame’ ��
Ageing is not a disease ��
The immigration issue: Europe has to choose ��
Neanderthals probably had some form of language ��
Biologists discover fossilised orchid, giant peccary and tree of heaven ��
In Bach’s oeuvre, the construction and the emotion are in perfect balance ��
Dying, comatose and forgotten languages ��
Repair it if you can ��
Child abuse finally taken seriously ��
Physics for real life ��
The rebirth of the Law Faculty ��
It’s not the pill but health that matters in Pharmacology ��
China is booming ��
Art historical research combined with scientific techniques ��
Appendix
NWO laureates ��
Students ��
Personnel ��
Executive Board, Deans of Faculties ��
Finance ��
Addresses ��
Colophon ��
�

�
08
01
Bivas-Benita and Batenburg win C.J. Kok Prize
Pharmacologist Maytal Bivas-Benita and mathematician Joost Batenburg are proclaimed discoverers of the year 2006 by the Faculty of Science.
They each receive the C.J. Kok Prize 2006. Bivas-Benita is honoured for her research into DNA vaccination via the lungs. In the near future, DNA vaccines
will be able to provide protection against, inter alia, tuberculosis. Batenburg receives the C.J. Kok Prize for his study Puzzelen in 3D, on the
calculation of the structure of three-dimensional images from cross-sections. He gained his PhD through his study of the most effective calculation
methods; these will be of use both to physicists and diamond cutters.

12
01
Our brains are active,
even when we are not
Adolescents cannot plan, and they drink too much. Their behaviour is often risky and impulsive. This opinion,
long held by parents, is now endorsed by scientists. Is this behaviour caused by their hormones? ‘No, it’s the
brain,’ says developmental psychologist Dr Eveline Crone. In adolescents, a specific part of the brain, the part
that governs rational behaviour, is not yet fully developed.
No matter how good adolescents may be at their studies or playing the piano, their powers of reasoning are not yet able to
cope with emotions and impulses. This is something Eveline Crone can be sure of: she uses MRI scanning techniques to
study the brains of children and young people between the ages of � and �� years old. Two years ago she set up the Brain
and Development Laboratory for her research group within the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Her research
attracted considerable interest, and she won a number of significant scientific prizes; in ����, she was awarded a Vidi subsidy,
and was invited to become a member of the prestigious Young Academy. Her research has significant societal implications.
She questions, for example, whether the Study House is the most appropriate learning environment for adolescents,
and whether young people should be subject to the same penalties as adults. The lack of awareness of this issue on the part
of the general public is one of the reasons why Leiden University together with the LUMC will in ���� be competing for the
Academic Year Prize for popularising research, with a submission on the subject of ‘the adolescent brain’.
Crone is one of the researchers of the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC). This institute was set up eighteen
months ago as an interdisciplinary partnership between researchers from four faculties: the Medicine/LUMC, Social and
Behavioural Sciences, Arts and the Faculty of Science. The research group has been set up along interdisciplinary lines to
reflect the fact that cognition is about language, but also about emotion. It is about the adolescent brain, but also about
Alzheimer’s; about people, but also about animals. It is even about robots. Cognitive psychologist Prof. Bernhard Hommel is
working on a robot which can handle uncertainty and which also has the ability to think. His theory is based on event coding,
which states that perception, recognition and actions are intrinsically linked in the human brain. Mathematicians and
computer specialists are needed to analyse all the data.
Cognitive scientists have to learn to understand one another’s language and to anticipate one another’s questions, is the
maxim. Psycho- and neurolinguist, Prof. Niels Schiller, who came to Leiden last year from Maastricht, sees himself as the
New facts about gunpowder ship disaster
During the explosion of the ship loaded with gunpowder in Leiden in 1807, Professor Jean Luzac, Professor at the Faculty of Arts, was fatally injured
whilst standing at the front door of the house of a friend, physicist J.A. Bennet. This is evidenced by a note written by a salvage worker that has
been discovered in the Dutch National Archive in The Hague. Arti Ponsen, member of the University staff and amateur historian, presents new facts
about the disaster that occurred on the Steenschuur in 1807. Since that time, no one at the National Archive had sought information about the calamity.
Ponsen is joint author of Het fataal evenement. De buskruitramp van Leiden in 1807, a compilation of articles about the gunpowder disaster.
�

�
12
01
Dr Eveline Crone Prof. Bernard Hommel
link between linguists and psychologists, and as translator of the specialist jargon of the two fields. At the start of ����,
Schiller, who conducts research into language production, set up a Language and Cognition group, which has already
generated a number of new ideas for interdisciplinary research.
Dr Serge Rombouts, director of the LIBC, teaches researchers to work with functional MRI. This is the force behind cognition
research: the super-fast development in imaging techniques, particularly MRI. Prof. Mark van Buchem, neuroradiologist
and one of the founders of the LIBC, can still recall the euphoria when in the early nineties his colleagues first
began to appreciate the potential of fMRI: it was actually possible to see the brain working! By making an MRI scanner sensitive
to the oxygen concentration in the blood, it was possible to make parts of the brain visible which were activated during
a particular task. However, it soon became clear that it was first necessary to determine what constitutes normal cognition,
before deviations from the pattern could be established. Co-operation with psychologists and linguists was not only interesting,
it was also necessary. For the linguists, the path to the scientists and MRI scanners in the LUMC was vital because of the
opportunities there for testing hypotheses directly and making the link with medical research. The new �Tesla MRI
scanner, which was christened in September ����, can create even better and more detailed images of the brain. This may
make it possible for conditions such as Alzheimer’s to be diagnosed at an early stage, even before any cognitive impairment
has been signaled. The LUMC has created the new C.J. Gorter Center for High Field MRI around this so-called ultra high
field scanner, which is one of only very few in the world.
Within a year of the foundation of the LIBC, the partnership is already bearing fruit. It is always an exciting moment when major
research subsidies are awarded. At the end of ����, NWO awarded the first Vidi subsidy to linguist Dr Claartje Levelt, who is
involved in the design of a language production model for babies and toddlers. Cognitive psychologist Ingrid Christoffels was
awarded a Veni subsidy to conduct research into switching from one language to another: how does the brain maintain control
over this process? In the division of Vidi subsidies in ����, four of the eight Leiden awards went to LIBC research. Crone received
a subsidy for her adolescent brain research, Dr Bernet Elzinga for research into the genetic susceptibility to stress, Dr Karin
Roelofs for the project on ‘Social anxiety, the brain and stress hormones’ and Serge Rombouts for the development of a completely
new type of fMRI. His aim is to use this to demonstrate how medicines intervene in the brain and in brain functioning.
Equipment for Malawi
A ship carrying 30 m 3 of PCs, printers, fax machines and a complete telephone exchange leaves for Malawi. The goods’ destination is the newly
founded Catholic University of Malawi (CUM). Menno Welling, anthropologist, archaeologist, PhD candidate at CNWS, Malawi expert and, in addition
to all this, chosen by the CUM as dean of the Faculties of Education and Social Sciences, collected the goods for this new Malawian university via
his Mlambe foundation. Students, mainly from the Archaeology programme, checked and repaired the equipment. At Mlambe’s request, Microsoft
Nederland agreed to provide licences for operating systems for the donated PCs.

A frontal view of three ‘resting state’ networks in the brain. Areas of similar colour show strong connectivity at rest.
27
01
Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal online
The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal
goes online, and is accessible to everyone,
free of charge. This historic dictionary is a
product of the Institute for Dutch Lexicology.
See http://gtb.inl.nl.
03
02
‘Unilocation’ LUMC complete
The LUMC opens the doors of new buildings
for the public: the Research Building and
the Education Building, both designed by
EGM architects. This makes the LUMC
‘Unilo cation’ complete.
�

��
08
02
Prof. Niels Schiller Dr Serge Rombouts
Rombouts, fMRI specialist and Alzheimer’s researcher, combines his technical and methodological inventiveness with the subject
matter of the research. He had heard of the problem: it often takes weeks for the effect of pills to treat depression, a psychosis
or another psychological or neurological condition to become apparent. Pharmacologists have no solution for this. They are
dependent on advanced, but nonetheless indirect methods. Rombouts had at some point studied the influence of cortisol on the
brain, and recognised the opportunities this offered. But to carry out further work in this area, he needed to explore a new type
of fMRI: the resting state fMRI. With this technique, the results of a scan are not dependent on the patient being assigned particular
tasks; instead, images are made of the whole brain at rest. ‘Relax, don’t fall asleep,’ patients are instructed. The effects of the
medicines themselves can be measured, without the patient having to carry out any tasks. Rombouts works together with other
researchers, including psychiatrists from the LUMC and pharmacologists from the Leiden Centre for Human Drug Research.
Prof. Joop van Gerven, neuro-psychopharmacologist, is enthusiastic about the prospects, and already sees fMRI as having a particular
relevance for pharmacology.
Resting state fMRI can be a very useful instrument for particular applications, but it is also interesting in itself. It is based on a
new view of the brain. Rombouts: ‘The dominant view is that the brain reacts primarily to stimuli from the environment. The
rest is background noise, or is irrelevant. But there is a different view, which is gaining increasing credence. According to this view,
the background noise is not noise at all. We can see the intrinsic operations of the brain, and there is a definite pattern to these
operations. There is even a well-ordered network between related areas of the brain. And this noise may well say more about the
functioning of the brain than the increased activity caused by carrying out a task.’
Work on cognition research is not restricted to post-doc researchers. Students, too, can learn the ins and outs of fMRI research.
Psycho- and neurolinguist Niels Schiller has even involved high school pupils in this research: within the Lapp-Top project, an
educational programme for talented and motivated senior high school students, pupils have themselves tested an aphasia patient
and analysed the data acquired as part of their final year assignment. Such experiments pose no problems for high school pupils:
their learning skills are more than adequate for the task.
Paul van der Heijden Rector Magnificus
Dies Natalis 2007. Rector Magnificus Prof. Douwe Breimer transfers the rectorship to Prof. Paul van der Heijden. Van der Heijden had been Rector
Magnificus of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) since January 2002. He is professor of Employment Law at the Faculty of Law and a member of
the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He continues to be Crown-appointed member of the SER. Van der Heijden studied law at the
UvA and gained his doctorate in 1984 at Leiden University with his dissertation A fair trial in social law? Prior to his appointment at the UvA, he
worked at Leiden and Groningen Universities, and was a judge at the Courts of Law in Amsterdam.

From Allah to Zen:
studying religions in Leiden
The Faculty of Religious Studies attracts an increasing and diverse student population. This reflects the fact that in
recent years religion has grown in importance, a trend which the Faculty has embraced wholeheartedly. As well as
programmes in Religious Studies, the Faculty also offers bachelor’s and master’s programmes in World Religions
and Islamic Theology. The Faculty has newly appointed professors in Islam in the West and in Buddhism, and a
new chair in Judaism. These changes make it possible for religion to be studied in a wider context.
The growing interest in religion is wholly related to the events of �� September ����. Leiden University had, however,
already started the new programme in World Religions some years previously. In ����, the Islamic Theology programme
was introduced, which has the potential to make a contribution to the integration of Muslims in Dutch society.
In November ����, Dr Maurits Berger was appointed Professor of the Sultan of Oman Chair in Oriental Studies. This
new chair has been made possible by a substantial donation by the Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said. The sultanate has
previously established chairs at the Universities of Harvard, Cambridge, Melbourne and Georgetown. Prof. Berger will be
focusing on education and research in the field of Islam in the present-day Western world. According to Dean Prof. Willem
B. Drees, his arrival will mean an enormous impetus for the programmes in Islamic Theology and World Religions.
American Jonathan Silk, Professor of Buddhism, is a further newcomer to the Faculties of Religious Studies and Arts.
His particular field of interest is the practical aspects of Buddhism, including translations of early scripts and the lives of
the authors of these texts. ‘I hope that the introduction to Buddhism will appeal to a broad public,’ says Silk.
The appointment of a Professor of Judaism is expected shortly, although there was in fact no budget available for this
post. The Faculty considers this chair so crucial for its programmes that it organised a rather unorthodox method of fundraising:
a sponsored dinner. On �� March, a kosher gala dinner was held in the Leiden Pieterskerk. The evening
was dedicated to Judaism as a living tradition. Drees: ‘Strengthening the study of Judaism will benefit all the Faculty’s
programmes. This is the only way that comparative research can highlight the similarities and differences, as well as
the interaction between religions. Now that we also study other religions than Christianity in our Faculty, the name of
08
02
Anissimova wins Education Prize
‘Every student learns differently.’ This is how lecturer in Russian, Larissa Anissimova,
explains why she uses a variety of different methods in each lecture. During
the Dies Natalis, Anissimova receives the Education Prize awarded annually by
the Leiden Student Council (LSR). Teaching and didactics are her passion. ‘She is a
source of inspiration to other lecturers’, says LSR Chairman Sophie Hogerzeil.
��

��
Prof. Maurits Berger
Faculty of Theology is no longer appropriate. We have therefore taken the decision to change the name to Faculty
of Religious Studies.’
It is clear that religion is again a hot topic and plays a comprehensive role in social debates. A sombre note has been
struck by politician Geert Wilders’ call for the Koran to be banned. Prof. Bas ter Haar Romeny, who delivered his inaugural
lecture in September ����, said on this subject: ‘Whatever Geert Wilders may contend, the Old Testament contains just as
many atrocities as the Koran. The Bible also talks of stoning people and hacking off their limbs. But there is not a single
Christian, even from the most orthodox groups, who would dream of stoning another person for committing blasphemy.
If you confront Christians with these passages from the Bible, they often find them embarrassing or they ask whether they
might not in fact be extracts from the Koran.’
The research carried out by Romeny and others in the Faculty of Religious Studies gives us an insight into how people
respond to sacred texts. The source texts of world religions are ages old, but in more recent times and in new situations they
are re-read and used as guidelines. You are not likely to become a terrorist just by reading the Koran, is Romeny’s conviction.
‘You only become a terrorist by ascribing a particular significance to a particular situation.’
Romeny conducts research into the Old Testament in Eastern Christian traditions. ‘By studying the ancient texts of Eastern
Christianity – these are often written in such little-known languages as Armenian, Syrian and Ethiopian – we gain a better
understanding of the history of the early Christians. One of the surprising outcomes of this research is that church schisms
and religious conflicts arose not only out of theologically different viewpoints, but that ethnic and political motives also
played a role.’
Prof. Willem B. Drees Prof. Jonathan Silk Prof. Bas Ter Haar Romeny
In ����, Romeny received the EURYl Award amounting to � �.� million from the European Science Foundation. This award
is made annually to �� potential world leaders in the field of science. Romeny had previously been awarded a Pioneer sub-
sidy worth almost the same amount. The new subsidy will be used to conduct research into developments in the religious
and ethnic identity of Assyrian, Coptic and other Christian migrants who came to Europe.
21
02
Skeleton under Academy Building
Whilst working in the Gewelfkamer (a room with an impressive vaulted ceiling),
restorers of the Academy Building come across the skeleton of a man, together with
two skulls, these in all probability having been of patrons or father confessors to
the White Nuns. Prior to 1581, the Academy Building was the chapel to these nuns’
cloister. Prominent people were buried in this chapel, which was built in 1507.

Mosque and synagogue side by side in Paramaribo.
18
03
Exchange agreement with Japanese Institute
Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Prof. Geert Booij, and Prof. Haruki Ii, Director of the
National Institute for Japanese Literature (NIJL) in Tokyo, sign an exchange
agreement. The objective is closer collaboration in the area of research and
improved access to collections. The NIJL is one of Japan’s leading institutes
for providing access to and research into literary source material.
��

��
19
03
‘Some terrorists are only interested
in their fifteen minutes of fame’
The Netherlands is one of the few countries in the world which has the promotion of the international legal
order in its constitution and has a reputation internationally as a ‘protector of international law.’ The Leiden
Law Faculty carries out extensive research in this field, thereby contributing to our close involvement in the
international rule of law.
‘Is there a cohesive worldwide vision of international terrorism and a coherent strategy for combating and preventing it?’
This was one of the key questions at a conference held in Leiden in April ����, organised by the Grotius Centre of the
Department of International Public Law at Leiden’s Faculty of Law and Campus The Hague.
Thirty-five experts from ten different countries came together at the Old Poelgeest conference centre just outside Leiden.
One of the initiators, Prof. Nico Schrijver, Professor of International Public Law, described the aim of the conference as
follows: ‘We wanted to take stock of where we are now, five years after �� September. What can we learn from the strategies
which have been followed so far? What has worked and what has not? What agreements should and can countries make on
the legal frameworks for combating international terrorism?’
The conference was organised at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was opened by Minister Maxime
Verhagen. He had just returned from Washington where he had held discussions with Condoleezza Rice on such issues
as Guantánamo Bay. Verhagen mentioned the forthcoming conference on international terrorism, and was asked by Rice
to keep her informed of the findings of the conference. ‘The Netherlands has the attention of the US,’ was the conclusion
drawn by Schrijver.
The attacks on the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon, Bali, London and Madrid were committed by international terror-
ist networks. This is not war in the classical sense. There is no recognisable army, and no state boundaries are threatened.
Instead, it is a system of values which is under attack. ‘The present law on warfare is not always adequate to tackle these
international networks,’ explains Schrijver. On the one hand, there are in some instances problems in rounding up or
extraditing those suspected of international terrorism. On the other hand, we do not want the law to sanction people
Roof construction of Academy Building appears to be original
The original oak timber roof construction of the Academy Building, dating back to 1507, is still largely intact. This is the conclusion of structural
engineers now that the building has been examined during renovation work. The Academy Building caught fire on 11 November 1616. A report
written by the University’s curators or governors describes the severity of the fire: nothing of the Academy Building remained standing apart from
the staende muyrwerck (standing walls), and the auditorium philosophicum (the present gewelfkamer with its vaulted ceiling). Apparently, the roof
was entirely destroyed, or so it was always thought. But that is obviously not the case.

Four young members of the Hofstad group on trial, suspected of terrorism.
19
03
Studying until midnight
During exam periods, students can now study
until midnight in the University Library (UB).
The opening hours are also extended
at weekends.
20
03
Hendrik Lenstra Academy Professor
Mathematician Prof. Hendrik Lenstra is to be appointed Academy Professor as of
1 September. The Royal Netherlands Society for Arts and Sciences (KNAW) pro -
vi des academy professors with the opportunity to devote themselves to innovative
research and education for a period of five years. ‘I shall be enjoying my second
youth,’ says Lenstra. In 1999 he was also awarded the prestigious Spinoza Prize.
��

��
Prof. Nico Schrijver Prof. Bob de Graaff
being arrested without due cause. ‘But,’ says Schrijver, ‘if you know that one lightning-fast action could prevent an attack in
another country, then you would be mad not to do it, but then within agreed legal frameworks.’
One of the conclusions of the conference was that law in the area of international terrorism may be very fragmented,
but that there is nonetheless extensive legislation on the subject. Schrijver: ‘It is not actually necessary to develop new laws.
It is more a matter of applying laws which are already in existence and making sure the activities within these fields of law
complement one another.’ The most serious shortcoming in the law is the inadequacy of the resources for preventing international
terrorism. Extensive discussions were therefore held during the conference on the issues of countries where there is
no sound government. Such countries appear time and time again to be breeding grounds for international terrorism. The
Dutch government has made development aid in this field a priority, for example by helping these countries to establish an
adequate constitutional state.
And if all countries of the world were to have a sound constitutional government, would that remove any fears about terror-
ist attacks? Prof. Bob de Graaff, who has been Professor of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism at Leiden University/Campus
The Hague since � February ����, does not subscribe to this view. Some terrorists are mainly interested in their ‘fifteen minutes
of fame’, and if possible, even a little more, in De Graaff’s opinion. ‘Much of the research into terrorism is focused on
the so-called root causes: what historic injustices, what social inequality, what prior government actions have led to the barbaric
acts committed by the terrorists? This is certainly legitimate research and should be continued,’ says the Netherlands’
first professor of terrorism. But he also believes that too little research is carried out in the Netherlands into the needs of
young people for self-expression as an explanation for radicalisation and terrorism. Some terrorists are primarily after a
place in the mainstream of history. They are not just seeking attention for their cause, but also for themselves.
In ����, De Graaff set up the Centre for Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism (CTC) at Campus The Hague. The CTC focuses
on the interdisciplinary study of terrorism and counter-terrorism, whereby contributions from political science, criminology
and history are studied in relation to one another. The CTC also aims to make a contribution to improving the quality of the
analyses carried out by the various government authorities involved in terrorism prevention.
01
04
Dummy eggs for gulls
Behavioural biologist, Anne Vollmer, Msc, begins her research into the nesting
of gulls in the city of Leiden. The reason for this is the nuisance factor of gulls
experienced by Leiden and other towns and cities. Vollmer studies the favourite
nesting places of the gulls; she replaces some of their eggs with dummies, and
studies the gulls’ reactions.

10
04
Ageing is not a disease
More and more people are living to an old age: a very old age. But there are considerable differences within the
human species: one person may die of a heart attack at ��, while another will live to ��. In Leiden, a globally
unique combination of doctors, geneticists, molecular epidemiologists and evolutionary biologists are working
on this issue.
What can be done to ensure that everyone remains healthy throughout the ageing process? And, directly related to this: why
does one person live to a much older age than another? These are the questions on which the Leiden scientists are focusing.
They are studying animal models – particularly fruit flies and butterflies – as well as human populations: cohorts of Leiden
residents aged �� and over, very elderly Dutch brothers and sisters, but also old people in Ghana, with a pre-Western lifestyle,
and their partners and children.
One of the most recent insights into ageing is that the conditions in the period before an organism reaches maturity are
crucial for health and mortality at an older age. In ����, Professor of Geriatric Medicine, Rudi Westendorp, and evolutionary
biologist, Bas Zwaan, set up an extensive European Network of Excellence, known as LifeSpan. Their aim is to find an
answer to such questions as: what is the biology behind the effects of ‘early influences late’? And are these effects reversible?
Leiden’s molecular epidemiology department, under Prof. Eline Slagboom, is also taking part in the study.
The European partners all contribute their own specific expertise, cohorts of humans and animal models: one has generations
of well-researched twins on offer, the other honey bees. Experiments with animal models are crucial to test the findings
arising from observations on humans.
An important theme of the research is: how do humans and animals handle their energy reserves? In periods of hunger, does
the body invest in physical maintenance, or, instead, in procreation? In simple organisms, the role of the insulin-signaling
system which regulates energy distribution appears to be the prime determinant. An important question is whether this system
also plays a role in the link between development and ageing.
University lends a helping hand to Afghanistan
The Afghans Khair Mohammed Khairzada and Qudsia Zohab arrive in Leiden to spend a year studying. Khairzada (30) works as an archaeologist
for the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture. He is studying computer programmes and English, and will also take in-depth courses in
archaeological excavation techniques and in the ancient history of Afghanistan. Zohab (24) works in the National Museum in Kabul. She will
learn computer skills, and will also follow a study in textile and clothing conservation. ‘In this way we can help Afghanistan with knowledge and
skills,’ says supervisor Dr Willem Vogelsang. More Afghans will come to Leiden in a year’s time.
��

��
Longevity in humans is apparently �� to �� per cent genetically determined.
12
04
Pre-University College awards 48 diplomas
The second group of pupils graduate at the Pre-University College. 48 diplomas
are presented, three pupils having dropped out. On 31 October 2005, 51 pupils
from the final year of high school started the course. The pupils have followed a
varied, 18-month programme, divided between five courses touching on disciplines
from almost all the different faculties.

15
04
Prof. Rudi Westendorp Dr Bas Zwaan Prof. Eline Slagboom
The reaction of the human body to food and famine is a further subject for research. The cohorts of the so-called ‘famine
winter’ of World War II and the Ghanaian population provide interesting material for examination. As Westendorp says, ‘In
a short space of time we have created a mismatch between our modern diet and our genes, which evolved in barren times.
Such a mismatch is also apparent at individual level. If you do not have enough food while in the uterus, and then in later
life you have a surplus of food, this has enormous adverse effects on your health, and even on the health of your children. A
study in India demonstrated that mothers who were relatively small and who became overweight as a result of rapid changes
in food conditions, had overweight children whose blood sugar levels were disrupted.’ Zwaan: ‘Carriers of particular genes
suffer more from this than others. If you know which people are affected, you can provide them with lifestyle advice or, if
necessary, resort to medical intervention. It is not a hopeless situation.’
Longevity in humans is apparently �� to �� per cent genetically determined, and the Leiden research project is also study-
ing the ‘gene’ aspect. In December, three PhD researchers completed the first phase of the extensive Leiden Lang Leven
study. This project, too, was a joint venture between the fields of biology, population genetics and medicine. It enabled the
researchers to lay a solid foundation on which the LifeSpan project could be based. Their aim was to see whether a number
of candidate genes from the insulin signaling system of simple animal models correspond with human genes. Indeed, they
found that in humans different genes appear to influence cognition, cholesterol metabolism, and age-related conditions such
as cardio-vascular diseases. But there is no one-to-one relation between the model and human genes. Over the course of
evolution, the genetic apparatus of humans has become too complicated for this. If only for this reason, intervening in a pair
of genes, so that the C. elegans worm can live five times longer than in the natural environment, for example, will not work.
Ageing is not a disease, and people do not die of old age itself. Westendorp has therefore always preferred to regard diseases
of older people as simply that, and advocates investing in research and treatment. There is now evidence that these new
clinical insights are achieving a breakthrough. A telling sign of this about-turn came in October, when LUMC surgeon Prof.
Cock van de Velde received a subsidy of � � million from the Dutch Cancer Society for research into breast cancer in women
aged �� and older, a thus far forgotten group. Van de Velde: ‘Contrary to the way it is portrayed in the media, breast cancer is
primarily a disease of older women.’
100 th anniversary of Tinbergen’s birth
Leiden University commemorates the 100 th anniversary of the birth of Prof. Niko Tinbergen, appointed professor in Leiden in 1947, with a lecture
and the opening of an exhibition. Biologist Tinbergen (15 April 1907 - 21 December 1988) was one of the founders of the study of the science of
animal behaviour (ethology). In 1949, he pursued his career in Oxford. In 1973, Tinbergen, together with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz, was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their research into animal behaviour. He also wrote several fine children’s books. Pièce
de résistance: Tinbergen’s toga came to light during the clear-out of the Academy Building prior to the renovation.
��

��
The immigration issue:
Europe has to choose
‘Successful immigrants are a gift for the receiving country; it’s rather like being presented with a road
network or a dike system,’ the Leiden immigration historian Prof. Pieter Emmer wrote in his discussion
of Paul Scheffer’s Country of arrival. Such comments stand out in a period in which migrants are
more often regarded as problems than as gifts.
It is no coincidence that this statement (in the Volkskrant of � October ����) was made by a migration historian. His
perspective extends further than only recent immigration history. Emmer does not avoid the issue of the immigration
and integration of Turks and Moroccans, which in his opinion has failed in recent decades. But he warns that this negative
experience may have an disproportionately strong effect on our view of immigration. A clear insight into the total history
of European migration may help us avoid misconceptions.
The weighty Enzyklopädie Migration in Europa, which was published in the autumn of ����, offers such an insight. The
editors of the encyclopaedia include not only two Berlin migration historians, but also two Leiden specialists in the field:
Prof. Pieter Emmer and Prof. Leo Lucassen. German and Dutch scientists have worked closely together on this extensive
academic project. It was the first joint project by the NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies) in Wassenaar and
the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study) in Berlin. The editors were supported by Leiden historians Dr Marlou
Schrover and Dr Corrie van Eijl.
Marlou Schrover embarked on her own Vici project in ����. She was awarded a subsidy of � �.�� million to investigate the
differences between the male and female immigrants who have entered the Netherlands in the past sixty years.
European migration history has proven to be a fascinating laboratory with countless – sometimes bizarre – experiments,
from which the lessons now have to be learned, explains Lucassen. Many of the encyclopaedia’s entries demonstrate the -
long-term - effects of choices relating to acceptance and exclusion. The encyclopaedia offers no ready-made solutions for
immigration and diversity; instead it highlights the consequences of choosing particular paths.
20
04
Leiden University’s own hot air balloon baptised
Leiden University’s hot air balloon, the PH-LEI,
is officially named by Professors Peter Kes and
Jan van Ruitenbeek of the Faculty of Science.
The balloon can be booked by anyone fancying
a flight; see www.ballon.leidenuniv.nl.

Albanian refugees from Prizren, Kosovo, reach the border to Albania at Morina, �� April ����.
26
04
Pre-selection in HBO Public Administration programme
The best Public Administration students from the Haagse Hogeschool can prepare themselves for the Leiden University master’s course during their
HBO (Higher Professional Education) training. The Hogeschool and the University sign a covenant for this. The implementation of Leiden University’s
bachelor’s-master’s system means that it is difficult for HBO Public Administration students to move on to the Leiden Public Administration master’s
degree programme. The principal cause of this is that grants are no longer being given for the elimination of any deficiencies. The Haagse Hogeschool
and Leiden University have solved this problem by including a major portion of the linking programme in the HBO training in a special minor.
��

��
08
05
Prof. Pieter Emmer Prof. Leo Lucassen
Migration is a perennial issue, and one which is often typified by problems. Political mobilisation of anti-immigration sentiments,
as we have witnessed in recent years in Dutch politics, was a more frequent occurrence in past times. But never before
have such sentiments led to the formation of new political parties. Europe has to make a choice, in Emmer’s opinion. Every
country of the European continent is currently witnessing a decline in population. This has never been the case in the past.
If Europe, discouraged by the problematic integration of Moroccans and Turks, chooses to refuse entry to immigrants from
other continents, the result will be future shortages in the working population. This will in turn have adverse consequences
for the future prosperity of the country.
Leiden University’s Institute of History has a long tradition of comparative research into migration and historic patterns of
acceptance and exclusion. The expertise in this field is focused within the research group on Migration, urban history and
social cohesion. Leo Lucassen and Prof. Wim Willems jointly occupy the chair in Social history with the emphasis on migration
and integration. Marlou Schrover and Corrie van Eijl are also members of this research group. The contributions of
these five researchers played a crucial role in the realisation of the migration encyclopaedia.
The encyclopaedia also includes articles by six other Leiden researchers. The titles of their contributions give a good indication
of the diversity of the subjects addressed. Dr Jessica V. Roitman wrote about the Sephardic Jews in Europe, Dr Raymond
Fagel wrote about Spanish merchants in the Netherlands, Dr Martin Bossenbroek devoted his contribution to Western and
Central European soldiers in the Dutch colonial army, and Dr Cátia Antunes discussed the presence of British merchants in
Portugal. These four authors are all affiliated to the Institute for History. In addition, Prof. Erik-Jan Zürcher (Languages and
Cultures of the Middle East) contributed an article on Greek Orthodox and Muslim refugees and deportees in Greece and
Turkey from ����. And, finally, Dr Johannes Oversloot (Russian Studies) wrote the entry on Russian migrant workers in the
construction of the Soviet Union in the fifties.
Leiden migration research is not limited to the Arts Faculty. Two years ago, theologian Prof. Bas ter Haar Romeny from the
Faculty of Religious Studies was proclaimed one of the �� potential world leaders in their scientific field. He received the EURYl
Award of � �.� million to carry out research into the migration of Christian minority groups from the Middle East to the West.
Video debate Leiden-Austin
Maartje van der Woude, LLM, lecturer in Criminal Law and Criminology, is carrying out an experiment with video conferencing. Four Leiden students
engage in discussion with five students at the LBJ School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas in Austin from 19.30 to 21.00 hrs on the subject
of the ‘crimmigration’ crisis. ‘Crimmigration’ is the interweaving of criminal law and immigration law in the fight against terrorism. The students
quickly forget that their partners in the discussion are thousands of miles away. Van der Woude leads the discussion. ‘I am convinced that you should
offer your teaching material in different ways. One of those ways is to discuss it.’

15
05
Dr Marlou Schrover Dr Belle Derks
Prof. Erik-Jan Zürcher
Many Eastern Christians live as refugees in Western Europe or North America. By comparing their situation in different
countries, Romeny hopes to gain more insight into such issues as the influence of the settlement climate in the host country
on the identity and the success of migrants. His research provides evidence of how important it is for refugees to have their
own ethnic identity. Syrian Christians who have fled to the West are, for example, often unsure whether they are Aramaic
or Assyrian. In many instances they are from the south-east of present-day Turkey, but they do not feel in any way Turkish.
They are frequently faced with the question: ‘What nationality are you, then?’, which forces them to find an answer that fits
more or less into our categories of ethnic communities and nationalities.
Research into identity is also being conducted in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Psychologist Dr Belle Derks
has studied how people who belong to a group with low social status, which is the case for many ethnic minority groups,
can be motivated to improve their social position. This works best, Derks discovered, if they have the experience of being
respected, for example, specifically on the grounds of their status as immigrants. In February ����, Derks obtained her PhD
based on this research.
The Institute for Immigration Law at the Faculty of Law studies the conflicts between the fundamental rights of immigrants
and the legitimate concerns of states wishing to regulate migration. Professor of Immigration Law, Prof. Piet Boeles, and Dr
Joanne van der Leun have published widely on this subject. Boeles, now emeritus professor, in the summer of ����, shortly
before his retirement expressed some criticism of European asylum policies. Every summer, hundreds of desperate people
risk the crossing to mainland Europe, and Spain, Italy and Malta pay the price for Fort Europe. The EU member states are
currently studying the proposals put forward by the European Commission to halt the stream of asylum-seekers coming
to Europe. Boeles does not expect very much to come of these plans. ‘It is no more than political gesturing. It is possible to
make agreements about the distribution of the problems, but the will to do it is lacking. Politically, there are always points to
be scored by adopting a strict attitude towards asylum-seekers.’ As Pieter Emmer said: ‘Europe has to take a choice.’
Debate Back from Afghanistan
SPIL, the study association for political scientists in Leiden together with periodical Vrij Nederland organises the debate Back from Afghanistan,
on the question as to whether the Netherlands should prolong her mission in Afghanistan. Taking part in the discussion are several politicians and
experts, including Dr Willem Vogelsang from Leiden University, as well as a variety of representatives from the media. Top Dutch soldiers who have
served in Uruzgan mention a lack of progress in the rebuilding of the country, corruption and a glaring lack of competence in local administrators.
Is there then any point in continuing the mission?
��

��
Neanderthals probably had
some form of language
Leiden University plays a key role in Neanderthal research. This was emphasised last year with the award of
the Spinoza Prize to Prof. Wil Roebroeks in recognition of his pioneering research. The jury report cites him
as an innovative and original scientist who does not shun debates in his field. He is guided by his own interpretations
and observations, rather than by prevailing assumptions.
Until recently, it was assumed that the Neanderthals were a very primitive branch of human evolution. The fact that their
culture stagnated over a period of thousands of years was taken as an indication of their inability to adapt intellectually.
‘But the truth is rather more subtle,’ according to Roebroeks, because recent research, mainly in Leiden, has brought to light
what he calls the paradox of the Neanderthals. ‘On the one hand they had simple technology which scarcely changed over
an unusually long period of time, yet on the other hand they were also experienced hunters of large prey, able to survive in a
broad range of habitats.’ The Leiden research group has invested heavily in discovering these patterns and in investigating the
differences and similarities between the archaeology of the Neanderthals and that of modern man – a contemporary of the
Neanderthals for part of the last ice age. The group is now hoping to develop new approaches to interpret these conclusions.
The Neanderthals were more robust than modern man. Their build was much more thick-set and sturdy than modern man
and they were far stronger. According to Roebroeks, the cause of their apparently low level of cultural development in comparison
to modern man can be found in the greater energy requirements of the Neanderthals. This may explain a great deal
of their spatial behaviour, including their hunting activities. Roebroeks: ‘The Neanderthals hunted very large prey: the massive
bulls, horses and rhinos, the real giants of the various species. These animals are not easy to hunt, but if you do manage
to catch one, you really have got something. In relative terms, it takes a lot of time and energy to catch the smaller species
and so the return on your time is much less. The Neanderthals were very driven hunters of large prey, and they employed
‘modern’ techniques in processing prey. They were also very flexible, since they roamed in a broad spectrum of habitats.’
The habitats of the Neanderthals were very diverse during the hundreds of thousands of years of their existence, which
included ice ages and interglacial periods. They roamed in landscapes varying from tundra to forests and all variations in
between, just like modern man. As they were hunters of large prey, they were forced to keep on the move. They were, in
24
05
Jan van Os draws Jill Smythies Prize
Jan Van Os (1942) receives the prestigious
Jill Smythies Prize awarded by the Linnean
Society in London for his botanical illustrations
of flora and scientific articles, published by the
National Herbarium of the Netherlands.

Prof. Wil Roebroeks: ‘Neanderthals were more robust than modern man.’
01
06
Maartje van den Heuvel Curator of Photography and Photographics
Maartje van den Heuvel, MA, is now Curator of Photography and Photographics in the Special Collections section of the University Library.
She succeeds Ingeborg Leijerzapf, who has taken early retirement. Until the beginning of this year, Maartje van den Heuvel was co-ordinator
of the Master’s Photography programme of AKV/St. Joost (Avans Hogeschool) in Breda. As freelance curator and critic, she sets up exhibitions
in the Nederlands Fotomuseum and the Dordrecht Museum, and she writes for Foto, Archis and Camera.
��

��
fact, extremely nomadic. ‘This explains why the remains of fires were found at excavation sites, but no hearth stones which
would make the fires more effective; nor were there any huts. Modern men often, but not invariably, went for a broader
spectrum of prey and had very different views of the costs and benefits of their spatial behaviour. They were probably able to
stay longer in one place, so that ‘investments’ in such activities as the building of huts and rough hearths were worthwhile,’
Roebroeks contends. ‘You can put your time into improving the efficiency of the techniques for hunting prey or into how to
handle the prey once it has been caught. The Neanderthals probably did the first. They had tools which could be used for a
wide range of purposes. Modern man had, in black and white terms, a different tool for each activity, with each implement
being carefully designed. Neanderthals used one simple implement for everything.’
It is Roebroeks’ assumption that the Neanderthals compensated their simple technology with very detailed knowledge of
the natural environment. ‘The problem is that this leaves no direct traces behind; there are no fossil remains. All we know is
that they were very experienced at hunting large prey.’ It is well-known that Neanderthals took care of wounded or invalided
members of their group, even though they were unable to hunt and so were no longer productive. These people probably
played a role in detailed knowledge transfer. Roebroeks is unwilling to go so far immediately as to claim that Neanderthals
had a language. ‘The problem is that language is a complex aggregate of different elements and that it does not fossilise. My
gut feeling is that the Neanderthals probably did have a form of language since language is a very efficient medium for building
up knowledge.’
01
06
Marika Keblusek Director of Scaliger Institute
Prof. Marika Keblusek takes up post as Director of the Scaliger Institute. Keblusek
(1965) was professor extraordinary in the History of Publishing and The Book
Trade at the University of Amsterdam. At the same time, at the History of Art
department she was involved in research into collections, including the Leiden
University collections, and in particular those of the University Library.

10
06
Biologists discover fossilised orchid,
giant peccary and tree of heaven
This year, Leiden researchers have been involved in the discovery of three new species: a million-year-old
fossilised orchid, a giant land mammal from the Amazon area and a tree of heaven in Vietnam. Leiden biologists
have also been awarded a subsidy worth � � million via the Smart Mix programme, a joint project of the
Ministries of Economic Affairs and Education, Culture and Development, for the development of medicines
to combat age-related diseases.
‘Taxonomists often believe that journals such as Nature and Science are not interested in their work,’ says Dr Barbara
Gravendeel, an evolutionary biologist and orchid specialist working at the Leiden location of the National Herbarium.
With her research she has proved the taxonomists wrong. On �� August this year, Nature not only published an article by
Gravendeel, et al, on the oldest find of a fossilised orchid, the journal immediately made it the cover story. The photo on
the front cover included a bee of an extinct species Proplebeia dominicana, which was encapsulated in amber dating back ��
to �� million years. On its back the insect has a fragment of pollen of a fossilised and also extinct species of orchid, named
by the authors Meliorchis caribea. The bee was the pollinator of the orchid.
Evolutionary biology is concerned with the study of the evolution of species. This can be done by comparing the genetic
material or the morphological characteristics of living and fossilised organisms. Besides establishing specific origins, evolutionary
biologists research the general mechanisms by which biological evolution takes place. It is an interdisciplinary
field. Zoologists and botanists are interested in the evolution of a specific species; paleontologists and geologists study fossil
species in order to answer questions about the speed and nature of evolution, and geneticists unravel the molecular basis of
changes in external characteristics over time.
The success of Gravendeel’s publication in Nature was preceded by a publication by Dr Hans Slabbekoorn and Ardie den
Boer-Visser in the journal Current Biology. Slabbekoorn, a behavioural biologist, attracted world-wide interest in his
research into the song of the great tit, which resulted in radio broadcasts in countries as far apart as England, Ireland, India
and Canada. He discovered that great tits in the city change their repertoire under the influence of traffic noise and other
urban disturbances. He analysed how these changes in song came about. Do the great tits raise the frequency of their songs?
International students organise ‘Cultural Festival’
International students present themselves and their countries with a Cultural Festival. In the garden of the Oude UB (formly the University Library)
there are dozens of stalls that the students have set up displaying typical aspects of their country’s life. One dance group follows the other on
a large podium (Chinese, Romanian Indonesian, Argentinian, Arabian), with as pièce de résistance a funky disco with some Dutch female students
in national costume. The festival has been organised by the International Student Network Representation (ISN-r). If the event is successful –
which from the number of enthusiastic visitors it obviously is – it will be repeated every year.
��

��
A bee of the Proplebeia dominicana genus encapsulated in amber, with a fragment of pollen on its back from the fossilised orchid Meliorchis caribea.
12
06
Rotating professorship in applied arts
For a period of 18 months, the History of Art department will have a rotating professorship in applied arts. Three renowned experts in this field will
succeed one another as visiting professor: Dr Reinier Baarsen, Curator of Furniture at the Rijksmuseum, Dr Christian Witt-Dörring, independent art
historian in Vienna and Curator of the Neue Galerie in New York (the museum for early 20 th century German and Austrian art) and Deon Viljoen, art
dealer specialising in Cape furniture from the 18 th and 19 th century, and in 17 th , 18 th and 19 th centuries furniture and works of art from early European
trading settlements in South-East Asia. The chair will be financed by TEFAF Maastricht, organising body of the international TEFAF art and antiques fair.

Dr Barbara Gravendeel Prof. Michael Richardson
Do they drop the lowest notes, or select other songs? This last option appeared to be the case: the tits have two different
sets of songs in their repertoire, one for the city and one for the forest.
This year, researchers from the Leiden Centre for Environmental Sciences (CML) were involved in the genetic analysis of a
new giant land mammal. This mammal was discovered by the Brazilian biologist Marc van Roosmalen in the area of the Rio
Aripuanã in the south-east of the Amazon basin. The new species, the giant peccary (Pecari maximus), belongs to the genus
of ‘pigs from the New World’ (Tayassuidae). Articles on this discovery were published by the researchers, including Dr Hans
de Iongh and Dr Pim van Hooft, in the German journal Bonner Zoologische Beiträge on �� October.
On �� December ����, Dr Hans Nooteboom of the National Herbarium of the Netherlands and Vietnamese PhD researcher
Hoang Van Sam published an article in the Herbarium’s botanical journal Blumea, in which they described a new type of
tree of heaven, termed by the scientists Ailanthus vietnamensis.
The project ‘A new generation of efficient biomedical research tools’ led by developmental biologist Dr Michael Richardson,
this year received � �� million from the Smart Mix fund. He and other biologists, chemists and pharmacologists from Leiden
University will be working together with other scientific institutions and businesses to develop medicines to combat agerelated
diseases of bones and joints. They will be using zebra fish as the prime model organism, both to discover illness
factors and to test new medicines. Richardson: ‘Zebra fish are ideal candidates to use as a model for the disease. Zebra fish
are a fraction of the cost of mice or rats, they are easy to keep and can also be genetically manipulated.’
Richardson also supported one of the two Leiden nominations for the ���� Academic Year Prize, an initiative of the NRC
Handelsblad, NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) and KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and
Sciences) aimed at popularising science and research. Biology student, Freek Vonk, is co-author of a high-profile article in
Nature about reptile toxin. Vonk, who is frequently referred to as the new Steve Irwin, wants to produce a documentary to
communicate the results of this publication to a broad public.
15
06
First university open-air pop festival FrisPop
The University Sports Centre is the venue for the open-air pop festival FrisPop for
students of Leiden University and the Hogeschool Leiden. In addition to several
bands and DJ ErickE, student associations also provide musical presentations. SLS
Wonen, the student housing corporation, which celebrates its 50 years’ existence,
is the principal sponsor. The festival will become an anual event.
��

��
In Bach’s oeuvre, the construction and
the emotion are in perfect balance
It took Prof. Ton Koopman ten years to record all the Bach cantatas on CD with the Amsterdam Baroque
Orchestra and Choir. The conclusion of the project in ���� preceded the three hundredth anniversary of the
death of Bach’s teacher, Diederich Buxtehude (���������). This was, in Koopman’s view, a good opportunity to
perform and record all this composer’s collected works.
Since then, ten CD’s of Buxtehude’s works have appeared, prompted by the anniversary of his death, although this was
not the only reason. Koopman’s real motivation in recording Buxtehude’s music was that he was convinced that qualifying
Buxtehude as the predecessor of Bach meant that he was not given the recognition he deserved. ‘Buxtehude’s music is in all
respects unique, literally one-off, and of the highest quality,’ according to Koopman.
Koopman is Professor of Historical Performance Practice at the Leiden Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts. He is
conducting research into how the composer wanted his music to sound. Koopman’s prime concern is the authenticity of
the performance of a musical opus. ‘The music should sound as the composer intended it to sound. And it should reflect the
time in which he lived, with the instruments which were available at that time. A composer composes for the people whom
he knows. If Mozart was composing an opera, he would go into the town to listen and talk to the singers who would perform
his work, to get a feel for what they were like. Only then would he compose for them. Bach, too, who for much of his
life was affiliated to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, knew the people for whom he wrote his music. And he was also familiar
with their musical instruments.’
Just as for the Bach recordings, the historically informed recording of Buxtehude also requires academic research to be
able to reconstruct how his music sounded in its own time. Koopman is assisted in this research by students and fellow
musicologists. The students study musical tracts from the time of Buxtehude to examine what they contain in the way of
useful information. There are some ��� such tracts remaining, in Latin, German, Italian, French, English and Dutch. In his
research, Koopman makes maximum use of the individual linguistic knowledge of his students. ‘The students were sometimes
less satisfied with what they found than I was. Their findings are often very valuable, although they do not always see
that themselves.’
19
06
Fenestra Disability Centre in Plexus
The Disability Centre that is to be housed in Plexus is to bear the name Fenestra.
This was announced during the start of the Impuls Digitaal Project, a project
through which students with a handicap (physical or mental) and a member of staff
can together come up with ICT solutions for educational problems that confronting
the student.

In this painting by Johannes Voorhout (circa ����), the figure beside the woman with the lute is thought to be Buxtehude.
26
06
Campus The Hague trains civil servants
Campus The Hague has once more secured the assignment to provide the intro-
duction programme for Rijkstrainees (civil service trainees). More than 150 young
graduates will follow this programme whilst continuing their work as policy officers
or staff officers at a ministry. The Campus has been providing this educational
programme since 2001.
��

��
Prof. Ton Koopman
What is in Koopman’s opinion the most significant difference between Bach and Buxtehude? Koopman: ‘Bach is for me
without doubt number one. He is absolutely the top. Bach is a superior architect; he can construct and is also able to convey
emotion. Other composers have a different balance of these skills. Bach fits within a particular musical tradition and is its
greatest exponent, but Buxtehude is one of the people who created this tradition. Bach was very impressed by Buxtehude.
He had intended to spend four weeks in Lübeck to take part in a performance of Buxtehude’s music and was so captivated
by it that he stayed much longer. Bach copied Buxtehude’s music by hand. Not so long ago a fragment of music was discovered
in Weimar by the �� year-old Bach who had copied a complicated work by Buxtehude. This gave us an important additional
source of a poorly surviving opus.’
‘Something similar once happened with Monteverdi,’ Koopman recounts. ‘Nikolaus Harnoncourt transcribed some of his
almost forgotten music. And with the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, who after years of silence was again brought
to public light by William Christie. Great but forgotten composers from the past simply need unconditional support to
achieve a revival.’
The Buxtehude Year in ���� concluded in November with a Buxtehude Festival in The Hague and in Leiden. An academic
symposium was held at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, led by Prof. Christoph Wolff (Harvard University) and
Ton Koopman. Wolff is recognised as the world’s leading authority in the field of Bach and his predecessors. Koopman is
unparalleled in his experience with the practical performance of the music of Bach and his predecessors and in his knowledge
of historical performance practice in general. Koopman and other Dutch academics have achieved an outstanding
reputation internationally in this field. The finale of the festival and of the Buxtehude commemorative year took place
in the Hooglandse Church in Leiden on �� November, with a performance by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and
Choir directed by Koopman. Seldom have art and science together reached such a pinnacle of performance as during this
Buxtehude Festival.
17
07
New Visitors’ Centre on Stationsweg
Benthem Crouwel Architekten BV in Amsterdam has designed the new Visitors’
Centre Leiden (VCL). The University Visitors’ Centre that is currently located in the
Central Station will be amalgamated in this VCL. Some 20 partners will participate
in the new VCL, including the City Council, museums, theatres and the hotel and
catering trades.

11
08
Dying, comatose and
forgotten languages
Leiden linguists are at the very forefront of their field in describing languages which may be on the verge of
dying out. Their aim is to preserve such languages for science, although this is small comfort for those whose
language has already been lost. Time is pressing because there are a large number of languages under threat of
extinction. In addition, linguists are often involved in trying to breathe new life into disappearing languages.
Of the �,��� languages which are spoken throughout the world, more than two-thirds have not been described; this represents
a corpus with an enormous potential. The prognoses are that �� to ��% of these �,��� languages will disappear in the
course of this century. Both for the speakers and for scientists, this represents a disaster of enormous proportions. With each
language that dies out, our knowledge of the phenomenon of language, and above all our ability to think in different ways,
diminishes. The group which will be most affected includes precisely those small to medium-sized languages which have not
yet been described. This leads Leiden linguists to the conclusion that research into these languages is of the utmost importance.
A good example of an area with a very complicated language map is the former Portuguese colony of East Timor. In the
past, East Timor was inhabited by two streams of migrants. For a long time it was thought that Papua peoples from New
Guinea represented the oldest stream, but recent research by Dr Aone van Engelenhoven into Makuva, a forgotten language,
has cast doubts on this theory. He believes that the Austronesian population group, originating from Taiwan, was there
first. He discovered by chance that although Makuva may well no longer be a living language, it is far from extinct: ‘It is a
language in coma. Archaeologists claim that the Austronesians forced the Papua-speakers out. This would be the reason that
there are only four Papua languages left in East Timor. It all seems plausible, because on a particular mountain in East Timor
one Papua language has been completely hemmed in by Austronesian. On the other hand, Makuva is an Austronesian language
which has been dropped by its speakers in favour of the Papua language Fataluku.’
Van Engelenhoven is descended on his mother’s side from a clan of story-tellers from the island of Leti, which lies close to
East Timor. As a result of this particular bond with the country, he applied for and was given official permission to learn the
language. He was welcomed on Leti as the prodigal son, and was instructed in the skills of his tribe: the telling of folk tales.
Dutch Open Youth Chess Championship Finale
The final of the Dutch Open Youth Chess
Championship, between two Leiden students,
ends in a draw. Physics student Bas van
Opheusden is champion, with Bram van der
Velden, classics student, in second place.
13
08
Leiden University goes halal
With effect from today, the main University
restau rants will serve halal products. The halal
snacks have been introduced because of an
increasing demand from students for meat
products that are suitable for Muslims.
��

��
14
08
Dr Aone van Engelenhoven Student Fleur Wensveen
This skill came in useful in his research on East Timor where his tribe originally came from, according to the stories. Many
Austronesian cultures are permeated with taboos. Even the word taboo itself is Austronesian. ‘Some of the taboos have the
effect of hampering the research,’ says Van Engelenhoven. ‘As a researcher you don’t automatically get to hear what is or may
be interesting; instead you have to ask the right questions. That can be difficult if you don’t actually know what you should
be asking about.’
Fleur Wensveen, bachelor’s student in the department of Languages and Cultures of Africa, developed a number of
teaching materials for the Yaaku tribe in Kenya. The language of the Yaaku has almost completely disappeared. The Yaaku
project is part of one of the Leiden applications for the ���� Academic Year Prize, an initiative of the NRC Handelsblad,
NWO and the KNAW to popularise scientific research. The plan behind the application was to bring linguistic and cultural
research in general and the issue of disappearing languages in particular to the attention of a broad public. The
team’s aim was to set up a mobile exhibition and to develop an educational programme. The present plan is to achieve
this aim with the help of other funds.
Leiden has a long tradition of research into ‘unusual’, so-called minor languages. If you want to learn about and study indigenous
languages from areas further east than the Middle East, further south than the Sahara and further west than Ireland,
you need to be in Leiden.
But other non-Western languages are also well represented. Rif Berber is the most commonly spoken Moroccan language
in the Netherlands, with a quarter of a million native speakers. It is one of the three Berber languages of Morocco, and is
characterised by broad differences in dialect. These differences have this year for the first time been mapped – literally - in a
language atlas by Dr Mena Lafkioui. Lafkioui conducted fieldwork in ��� villages among �� tribes in the Mountainous Rif
area of northern Morocco, the area of Morocco which has been least studied by linguists. Berber languages are spoken from
North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt) to Burkino Faso. They belong to the family of Afro-Asiatic languages.
The most widely spoken Berber language is the South Moroccan Tashelhiyt, which is spoken by some �� million people.
Adelaar receives honorary doctorate
Prof. Willem Adelaar receives an honorary
doctorate from the San Marcos University in
Lima, Peru. Adelaar is a specialist in native
American languages and cultures, and in
particular those of the Andes.
01
09
First Dorrestein, then Grünberg
During this academic year, Renate Dorrestein is Leiden University’s guest writer.
Her programme includes giving a course in literary writing, carrying out research
with students into the value of reading, and taking part in two public interviews.
She is to give the Albert Verwey Lecture in November. Arnon Grünberg will succeed
her in 2008.

A rock painting depicting the kind of boat which brought the Austronesians to East Timor.
01
09
Rietje van Dam Vice-Rector Magnificus
Prof. Rietje van Dam has been appointed as the new Vice-Rector Magnificus of Leiden University. She succeeds Prof. Ton van Haaften. Prior to
this, Van Dam was Professor of Biochemistry and Biotechnology at the Dutch Open University. In her position on the Executive Board she will be
responsible for the Education and Human Resource Management portfolios. At the Open University, where she was Rector, she participated in
various international projects in the areas of education and educational development. She is a member of the Supervisory Board of Akzo Nederland
BV and Unilever Nederland. During the five-year period 1998 to 2003, she was a member of the Scientific Council for Government Policy.
��

��
01
09
Prof. Harry Stroomer
Dr Asghar Seyed-Gohrab
Prof. Harry Stroomer, the man responsible for making Leiden into a centre for Berber studies, has been working on a
dictionary of Tashelhiyt since ����. There are major differences between the Berber languages: Rif Berber is as different from
Tashelhiyt as French is from Spanish, for example. ‘This atlas of Rif Berber for the first time demonstrates how complicated
the language situation is in the north of Morocco,’ says Stroomer. ‘In the south, there is not so much variation, but the further
north you go, the greater the variation becomes.’ Stroomer has been awarded a subsidy to develop a Dutch-Rif Berber
dictionary. This is particularly relevant in the Netherlands because of the large number of Rif Berber speakers.
There is more news about Leiden dictionaries. Three Iran specialists, Dr Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, Dr Gabrielle van den Berg
and Drs Marjolijn van Zutphen, have produced a Persian-Dutch dictionary. ‘There are some ��,��� Iranians and ��,���
Afghans living in the Netherlands who are also Persian speakers. This dictionary is primarily intended for them,’ explains
Seyed-Gohrab. Persian is an Indo-European language and is therefore closer to Dutch than Arabic. But as a result of the long
cultural bond with the Arab world, Persian is written in Arabic script. Four letters have been added to this script to represent
sounds which are not present in Arabic. Persian has been studied in Leiden for a long time. The first Persian dictionary was
made as early as ����, by Franciscus Raphelengius, who was intrigued by the similarities with Dutch: at that time, Persian
was still thought to be a Semitic language. Scaliger completed Raphelengius’ dictionary in ����. This dictionary played a role
in the discovery of Indo European. It was only at the end of the eighteenth century that the existence of this language family
was systematically proven, under the influence of the study of Sanskrit.
The Arts Faculty is home to a large number of specialist departments which are all exceptional in their field, and where toplevel
research is carried out. Leiden linguists play a prominent role in international debates. The Spinoza prize has twice been
awarded to linguists from Leiden in recognition of the excellence of their research.
Sjoerd Verduyn Lunel new Sience Dean
Prof. Sjoerd Verduyn Lunel becomes the new
Dean of the Faculty Science. Mathematician
Verduyn Lunel has worked in Leiden as a
professor for the last eight years. He succeeds
Prof. Frans Saris.
01
09
Tim de Zeeuw Director-General of ESO
Astronomer Tim de Zeeuw takes up his duties as Director-General of the European
Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, (ESO). He
is the second Leiden professor of Astronomy to occupy this position; Harry van
der Laan preceded him (1988-1992). Earlier this year, De Zeeuw was awarded an
honorary doctorate by the prestigious University of Chicago.

03
09
Repair it if you can
Within the human body, numerous cells are constantly engaged in repair and replenishment activities. Every
minute, bone marrow alone produces ��� million red and ��� million white blood cells. Medical specialists are
increasingly taking advantage of the natural characteristics of cells to repair the function of damaged tissue, or
to replace tissue and organs.
Research into regenerative medicine is currently experiencing such momentum and involves so many different areas of
specialisation that the LUMC has set up a theme group to conduct further research in this field. This group is made up of
experts from a number of different clinical and fundamental specialisations, including surgery, cardio-vascular diseases,
orthopaedics, endocrinology, nephrology, immunohaematology, gastro-intestinal diseases, gene therapy and molecular cell
biology. ‘There are two possible routes for regenerative medicine,’ explains haematologist Prof. Wim Fibbe. Fibbe, a specialist
in stem cell therapy, is the head of this group. ‘The technique, known as ‘tissue engineering’, uses a combination of cells and
carriers, called scaffolds, that form a framework for the cells to attach to and develop. This technique can only be carried out
in collaboration with technical universities. The current programme in the LUMC focuses on cellular therapy, in particular
on stem cells.’
The best known source of stem cells is the bone marrow. In ����, the world’s first bone marrow transplant was carried out
in Leiden. Forty years later, bone marrow cells are used in the LUMC in a variety of experimental treatments of serious tissue
damage. A research project typically starts with a pilot study, and if this proves to have potential, it is followed by a randomised
trial using a placebo. Such a trial was conducted with patients who had serious circulatory problems, and who were
no longer suitable candidates for a by-pass operation. These patients had their own bone marrow injected into the heart.
The randomised study produced some good results, and it is now in its final phase.
In addition to haematopoietic (blood forming) stem cells, the bone marrow also contains ‘mesenchymal stem cells’, which are
able to differentiate into other tissue lineages, including bone and cartilage. What is so special is that these cells are also able to
modulate immune responses. In the LUMC, mesenchymal stem cell therapy is already being applied to prevent rejection following
stem cell transplantation in children. The hope is that this will also help in auto-immune diseases, such as Crohn’s disease.
Winsemius’ choice is for an ‘attacking’ university
Guest speaker at the opening of the academic year is alumnus Dr Pieter Winsemius. Speaking about choosing talent: ‘Top talent thrives in an
environment that encourages the belief that even after ten falls the eleventh attempt succeeds. Top talent is prepared to be foolhardy, to follow
a course that the wise would not choose. And this happens mainly when the great masters are prepared to lead the way. The person who chooses
talent has the courage to be hard on those who should function as a source of inspiration, and on students who do not perform. Choosing means
especially not doing certain things. Whoever chooses talent, chooses an ‘attacking’ university.’
��

��
Isolation of the islets of Langerhans. In November, for the first time in the Netherlands, these islets were transplanted into a diabetes patient at the LUMC.
03
09
Medal for oarsman Jaap Schouten
Law student Jaap Schouten wins bronze in the
lightweight men’s single sculler at the World
Rowing Championships in Munich. He is now in
training for the 2008 Olympic Games in Peking.
03
09
Robin Straaijer wins Young Scholars Award
Drs. Robin Straaijer, PhD candidate in the VICI
project The Codifiers and the English Language
wins the Young Scholars Award for his lecture
Towards a quantification of prescriptivism at
the Third Late Modern English Conference.

18
09
Prof. Wim Fibbe
Dr Eelco de Koning
In November, the LUMC announced that for the first time in the Netherlands islets of Langerhans had been transplanted
into a diabetes patient. These islets are the insulin ‘factories’ in the pancreas. In patients who are suffering from type � diabe-
tes, the immune system destroys these islets. The LUMC is the only hospital in the Netherlands which is permitted to isolate
the islets of Langerhans from the pancreas for transplantation. Conditions are very strict; the islets of Langerhans may only
be isolated in special sterile environments.
Transplantation of these islets is a significant new treatment option for a selected group of Dutch patients with type � diabe-
tes and complications, but it is not the end of the story, says endocrinologist Dr Eelco de Koning. It is a step on the way to
more advanced forms of cell therapy. Here, too, mesenchymal stem cells may offer a solution, by suppressing the immune
system, but also by providing blood cells for the transplanted islets, or even by making insulin-producing cells. Gene therapy
specialists from the LUMC are working on this last option. But the more specialised stem cells from the pancreas itself also
offer perspectives. De Koning: ‘We put them into a culture, and see that they make a kind of islet and produce insulin.’
These types of cells come from donors, but immunologist Dr Bart Roep now wants to take crucial cells from the immune
system of the patients themselves, cultivate them in a special environment in the lab and then reintroduce them into the
patient. The idea is that they will restore the immune balance so that the patient starts producing insulin again. Just before
Christmas, Dr Roep was awarded a Vici subsidy to carry out this research.
Until recently, it took five to ten years for fundamental research to be translated into clinical treatment. This process is now
accelerated. As a consequence, clinical trials are based on relatively little preclinical data. Take, for example, the use of bone
marrow cells in cardiac repair. Fibbe: ‘While some of the trials suggested beneficial effects of cellular therapy, other stud-
ies showed none. Subsequent clinical studies require more detailed knowledge of the underlying mechanisms. In a process
called reversed translation, we go back to animal experiments to identify mechanisms that will then be retranslated into new
clinical trials. Clinical practice is ahead of our understanding of the underlying concept, and we try to obtain a beneficial
outcome, irrespective of the underlying mechanisms. �� years ago, stem cell transplantation became a clinical reality without
detailed knowledge of haematopoietic stem cells. The same process is happening today.’
ICLON starts LAPP-Top for Teachers
Teaching methodologists at the ICLON are collaborating with the University’s faculties in developing the LAPP-Top for Teachers programme.
With this programme they are responding to the call for extra opportunities for top teachers. As of January, a group of first-rate VWO
(pre-university) teachers will follow a course of tutorials, acquaint themselves with new and trend-setting research, and will work together on
a publication. In this way ICLON intends to make teaching more challenging and thus more attractive for those who are still unsure about
embarking on a teaching career.
��

��
Child abuse finally taken seriously
The little girl from Nulde, the girl known as the ‘Maasmeisje’, toddler Savanna: Child abuse has become a
‘hot item’ in recent years. Problems of paedophilia and child pornography are hitting the news with increasing
frequency. Every year, the number of children who are abused is much higher than had previously been
assumed. But not all children suffer long-term psychological damage as a result. These are the findings of two
research projects carried out by the Departments of Child and Education Studies and Psychology.
Prof. Rien van IJzendoorn of the Centre for Child and Family Studies, carried out a national research project on behalf of
the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport into the extent and nature of abuse of children and
young people up to �� years of age. The objective was to gain insight into the true extent of the problem. The report generated
by this research, the National Prevalence Study of Abuse of Children and Young People, is the first Dutch study into the
prevalence of child abuse. The report was presented to Minister Rouvoet of Youth and Family Affairs on �� April and was
submitted the same day to the Lower House, together with appropriate policy recommendations. In the research report, the
number of children who are abused is estimated to be ���,��� annually, a figure which is much higher than had previously
been assumed.
Dr Bernet Elzinga, researcher in clinical, neurological and health psychology at the Leiden Institute of Brain and Cognition
(LIBC) is involved in the issue of child abuse from a very different perspective. She received a Vidi subsidy this year for her
research into the long-term consequences of child abuse. Not all children who have suffered emotional, physical and/or
sexual abuse later develop psychological problems, such as depression or alcohol addiction. Elzinga suspects that genetic vulnerability
plays a role here. ‘Some people are by nature vulnerable, while others are more resilient.’ Elzinga’s research focused
on a neuropsychological model based on animal research. This model assumes that abuse can influence the structure and
function of particular areas of the brain, particularly if the brain is still in a developmental stage. Based on a so-called diathesis
stress model, these effects are expected to occur particularly in those persons who are (genetically) sensitised. She
will use brain scans to compare the brains of patients who have a history of abuse and who have developed a psychological
disorder, with the brains of people who have suffered similar abuse, but have not suffered any psychological problems. She
will also investigate whether there are any differences between people with particular genetic profiles. If this research demon-
18
09
Gerard Unger presents the Leiden letter
Prof. Gerard Unger, Professor of Typographical Design, presents the Leiden letter,
which he was commissioned to design exclusively for Leiden University by the
Academic Historical Museum. The letter is to be used in the design of four historical
texts that are to be immortalised at various locations and in various different
materials in the Academy Building.

Savanna was abused, neglected and – at the age of three – murdered.
28
09
Piet Schrijvers wins OIKOS public prize
The public prize of the OIKOS, the National Graduate School in Classical Studies, is
awarded to Piet Schrijvers, Emeritus Professor of Latin Language and Literature.
Schrijvers is active as a translator and essayist. The prize was established to
honour scholars who in an outstanding manner bring the Classics to the attention
of a broad public.
��

��
28
09
Prof. Rien van IJzendoorn Dr Bernet Elzinga
strates that genetic sensitivity indeed plays a role, this will hopefully offer some new insights into the treatment of depression
and other disorders resulting from child abuse. Genetic sensitivity is not a life sentence, nor is it a disaster scenario for which
there is no treatment. ‘No single victim of child abuse, whether genetically sensitised or not, is automatically doomed to suffer
anxiety and depression for the rest of his or her life.’
The Department of Child and Education Studies, of which Van IJzendoorn’s Child and Family Studies research group is
part, has an excellent reputation. The department even achieved first place in the Guide to Higher Education ����, based
on student assessments.
In the opinion of Van IJzendoorn, child abuse has for too long not been taken seriously enough, which has severely
hampered child protection. He hopes that last April’s research will result in the surveys being repeated so that it can be
established whether government policies, a change in the composition of society or a change in the attitude of parents,
for example, has any influence on the number of cases of child abuse. In the US, the national government has for decades
financed the National Incidence Studies, which served as the model for the Leiden research.
In other areas, too, child protection is being taken increasingly seriously: in October ����, for example, a majority of
members of the Lower House indicated that they wanted internet providers to be forced to block websites dealing in child
pornography. In the same month, Minister Hirsch Ballin reached agreement with his European colleagues that it would in
future become a criminal act not only to be in possession of child pornography, but also to view child pornography.
Van IJzendoorn’s opinion is clear: ‘There are occasions when the rights of the child outweigh the rights of adults. It is high
time that mistakes made in the past were put right; child abuse should be taken seriously, in the scientific world, in policies
and in practice.’
Exhibition ‘Hidden Women’
Opening in the Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder in Amsterdam is the exhibition Verborgen Vrouwen (Hidden Women) about the until now hidden
role of independent religious women in the Middle Ages and the Golden Age. The exhibition has been organised by the Warnar team, under the
leadership of Literary Historian Geert Warnar; in June 2006 the team achieved second place the 2006 Academic Year Prize final. Despite missing
the first prize of € 100,000, the team managed to acquire funding of almost double that amount, which was sufficient to finance the exhibition, a
documentary, a special event, concerts, debates, a book and a website.

Physics for real life
The specially conditioned test chamber of physicist Dirk Bouwmeester and the realistic pre-industrial setup
of physicist Joost Frenken appear to be two different worlds. But they share one common characteristic which
applies to the whole of physics research in Leiden: the desire to link the most difficult fundamental research to
real life. Whether this is car catalysators or cancer cells, minuscule mirrors or nano-scale data storage systems.
The ‘coldest place on earth’, as Leiden was referred to in ���� when the legendary Kamerlingh Onnes liquefied Helium-�,
will become even colder if quantum physicist Dirk Bouwmeester has his way. Bouwmeester, celebrated and lauded for his
challenging experiments, was tempted back to Leiden in February ���� to take up the position of Professor of Quantum
Optics and Quantum Physics. He combines this position with his professorship at the University of California in Santa
Barbara. What Bouwmeester wants is to demonstrate quantum behaviour in macroscopic, and therefore tangible, objects. In
his experiments he uses a minuscule mirror linked to an equally minuscule leaf spring. This behaviour has so far only been
demonstrated in separate atoms or molecules or clouds of such atoms or molecules. Quantum behaviour can only be studied
at extremely low temperatures. Bouwmeester therefore devised a new method of cooling the mirror to a temperature of
�.��� Kelvin (-��� degrees Celsius), by making use of the power which light can emit if it is reflected on an object. In Leiden
he will combine optical cooling with more conventional cooling methods; in this way he hopes to be able to lower the temperature
to one-millionth Kelvin. The absolute zero point is by definition established at � Kelvin (-���,�� degrees C.) and is
unattainable.
Whereas Bouwmeester pushes laboratory conditions to the extreme with his ultra-cold temperatures and vibration-free
islands, surface physicist Joost Frenken works as far as possible under real-life conditions. Frenken, who develops microscopes
with which he can scan a surface at atomic level, was this year awarded the prestigious Jacob Kistemaker Prize by the
Foundation for Fundamental Research into Materials (FOM). He is scientific leader of the project on Nano Imaging under
Industrial Conditions (NIMIC). Together with colleagues from Delft, his research group will be developing new microscopes
which can make the movements of atoms visible in a real life environment: in factories, to research catalysis processes,
or in hospitals, within cancer research. In March, NIMIC received a SmartMix subsidy from the Ministries of Economic
Affairs and Education, Culture and Science, intended to stimulate economic, societal and cultural innovation. Dr Marcelo
Ackermann gave a foretaste of the possibilities in November when he obtained his PhD with distinction based on his dis-
02
10
Pieter Isaacsz, forgotten artist rediscovered
In Frederiksborg Castle near Copenhagen there is an exhibition of works by the
Dutch-Danish painter Pieter Isaacsz (1568-1625). Art historian Dr Juliette Roding
discovered the forgotten artist in the late 1980s whilst carrying out research for
her dissertation. Isaacsz had long been overlooked because of his dual nationality.
This is the first time that so many of his works have been exhibited together.
��

��
Sheared foam in an experiment by Martin van Hecke.
15
10
Wim van den Doel Interim Dean at Faculty of Arts
Prof. Wim van den Doel has been appointed Interim Dean of the Faculty of Arts.
Van den Doel has been Professor of General History in Leiden since 2003. His first
task will be to give shape to the restructuring of the faculty, among other things by
funding a graduate school. Van den Doel succeeds Prof. Geert Booij.

17
10
Prof. Dirk Bouwmeester
Prof. Joost Frenken
sertation on heterogeneous catalysis. He was the first person to be able to research the catalysis process of a car catalysator
at a realistic temperature and pressure rather than under the usual icy laboratory conditions. He discovered that this process
works very differently from how chemists had thought, including Nobel Prize winner for chemistry in ����, Gerhard
Ertl. Chemists always regarded a thin oxide layer on the catalysator as disadvantageous for the process of catalysis. However,
Ackerman discovered how such a layer comes about, and shows that it actually ensures that the catalysator functions properly.
Now it can be determined precisely what atomic structure causes a catalysator to work well or poorly.
Dr Tjerk Oosterkamp also works with scanning probe microscopes. He uses this method to study biological material which
he images at nanoscale. In ����, together with LUMC oncologist Prof. Susanne Osanto, he received a subsidy from KWF, the
Dutch Cancer Society, to research the relationship between cancer and thrombosis. In December ����, he was announced
as one of the winners of the first series of research subsidies awarded by the European Research Council. The ERC, founded
in February, is a new initiative of the European Union, intended as a significant step in the direction of a European Research
Area. With his ERC grant of � �.� million, Oosterkamp intends to research the characteristics of a cell not on, but under the
surface. His aim is to penetrate to the cell nucleus, and to produce three-dimensional images of the structure. To achieve
this, he will be developing two new techniques for his scanning microscope; his aim is to refine and combine echography
and nuclear magnetic resonance, techniques which are daily practice within a hospital environment, to achieve atomic resolution.
Biophysicist Dr Irena Ivanovska is also working on the building blocks of real life. She received a Veni subsidy for
research into the physical aspects of stem cell differentiation.
There is nothing more common than shaving foam, mayonnaise or grains of rice. But the behaviour of these substances is
still shrouded in mystery. Dr Martin van Hecke is researching how these materials flow, become smooth or form lumps. He
is combining this with research into the microscopic organisation of disordered materials. He, too, brings together the minor
and the major. In November he received a major subsidy from the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter to collaborate
with a national consortium in this new field. Prof. Wim van Saarloos is investigating the theoretical dimensions of
the research. Last November, Van Saarloos was appointed a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). This is a great
honour as only a half of one per cent of the members of the APS are offered a fellowship.
Israeli Minister Isaac Herzog lectures on Zionism
The Israeli Minister of the Diaspora Isaac Herzog gives the lecture Zionism in
Practice in the Faculty of Religious Studies. This lecture is the first of the series of
evening lectures on Zionism organised by the Center for Information and Documentation
Israel and Leiden University. This lecture covers the different movements
within Zionism and the international reactions to them.
��

��
17
10
Prof. Jan Zaanen Prof. Carlo Beenakker
Electrical current, preferably with as little resistance as possible, is traditionally a field in which fundamental and applied
research, and theoretical and experimental research come together, although there is sometimes a gap of years between being
right and being accepted as such. Theoretician and Spinoza winner Prof. Jan Zaanen is studying the collective quantum
behaviour of electrons, for example, and is endeavouring to find an answer to a twenty-year-old puzzle: how can superconductivity
exist at high temperatures? In ����, Zaanen predicted a kind of highway in high temperature superconductors
along which electrons could move without meeting any resistance. He named these highways stripes. For two decades a true
scientific war has been waged on the subject, but in March of this year an article appeared in the journal Science reporting
that scientists from Cornel had demonstrated the indisputable existence of these stripes using scanning miscroscopy.
The very newest fascination of physics, graphene which can be made with a pencil and some Scotch tape, apparently has
very special electronic characteristics. Graphene is a layer of graphite, the thickness of a single atom. Prof. Carlo Beenakker,
theoretician and also Spinoza winner, demonstrated in Nature Physics in February that the material may well have applications
in semi- or superconductivity in microelectronics.
Whereas the nano-industry uses trial and error to make devices ever smaller and more reliable, fundamental scientists often
contribute to a bottom-up approach: first understand how something works in a single molecule, and then develop it further.
Prof. Jan van Ruitenbeek and his research group demonstrated that it is possible to attach a reliable electronic contact
to the very smallest molecule, hydrogen. Starting this year, he has been heading a major new FOM programme for atomic
and molecular nanophysics. And PhD researcher Sander Otte, together with a research team from IBM, devised a method
for determining the magnetic stability of an individual atom. In August he published an article on the subject in Science.
His findings pave the way for the development of data storage systems at nanoscale, which – for the time being,
theoretically – can store ��,��� times as much data as the present-day hard discs.
Glistening gold on the Academy Building tower
An enormous mobile crane moves up the Rapenburg. It swings into action to lift the clock faces up to the tower of the Academy Building, where
they are returned to their accustomed position. The clock faces had been badly weathered, but are now restored to their former glory, with the figures
and hands having been re-gilded with gold leaf. The use of gold leaf was essential, as gold paint cannot withstand the rigours of the weather.
But there is more gold to be seen on the tower: the weathervane in the form of Minerva (goddess of wisdom and war, complete with spear in
hand), instrument-maker Samuel van Musschenbroek’s wind direction indicator and the crown have also been treated to a new layer of gold leaf.

20
10
The rebirth of the Law Faculty
You may think you work in a dynamic research environment. You may even consider that yours is among the
best studies in the country, but it is more important that the outside world endorses this opinion. At the Law
Faculty this is the case, as the visitation reports by external experts demonstrate. After a rather painful reorganisation,
the rebirth of the Law Faculty is now complete.
The visitation committee awarded an average of �.� on a scale of � to the legal research carried out at the E.M. Meijers
Institute. The Institute has five research programmes:
� ������� ����������
� ��� ������ �� ������ �����������
� �������� ��� ���� �� ��� �� � ����� �� ���������� ������������
� ������ �������� ��� ��� ���� �� ���
� �������� ������ ������
In the view of the committee, a particular strength of the Faculty is that current societal issues are core to all five programmes.
The breadth of the expertise present in the Faculty is a further noteworthy feature, which makes it possible
for complex research questions to be studied from different perspectives and disciplines. This breadth of research also
enhances the quality of the Faculty’s teaching.
The Faculty’s teaching of law and criminology was also given a positive assessment in ����, including the English-language
programmes, the so-called Advanced LL.M. programmes. These have now been accredited.
To those within the Faculty, the fact that the visitation generated only good scores for the law programmes came as no surprise.
Surveys among students had already indicated a growing appreciation of the teaching of law in Leiden. ‘We owe it to our
reputation to continue to be among the top law studies in the Netherlands,’ says Dean of the Law Faculty, Prof. Carel Stolker.
The Faculty enjoyed a significant boost in ���� when, after extensive renovations, the Kamerlingh Onnes Building was ready
for occupation. Since then, the whole Faculty has been located in one building, whereas previously, the law specialists had
been spread across ten different buildings throughout Leiden. Stolker is pleased to have the whole faculty under one roof:
Art History department 100 years old
The Art History department celebrates its
100-year anniversary. In 1907, Prof. Willem
Martin was appointed professor by special
appointment in Art History, and this event
marks the actual birth of the department.
20
10
Former students establish prize
A group of former students from 1957 who had
also been members of the Leidsch Studenten
Corps (Leiden student fraternity) has raised
€ 30,000 for a fund to finance an annual prize
for the best thesis.
��

��
Prof. Carel Stolker
‘It may seem less important in these times of e-mail and internet, but that is not the case. Faculty members now see one
another almost every day and there is ample opportunity to broach any issues that may need to be discussed. There’s no network
connection in the world which can match that kind of contact.’
A new feature of the Law Faculty is the extra-curricular Talent Programme for enthusiastic and ambitious master’s students
who are particularly interested in research. In this programme, worth �� study points, students learn research skills alongside
their regular master’s of �� study points. There is no need for them to choose between a particular specialisation and a
research master’s; they can do both at the same time. Then they can start writing their thesis.
A further innovation is the introduction of an intensive mentoring scheme, the so-called Leiden Law Practices. Groups
of some �� first-year students are each assigned a professor or senior lecturer as tutor and a more senior student as student
tutor. This type of small-scale and personal approach is designed to counter the massiveness of the popular law programmes,
and the programme in Criminology. Subjects which are addressed during the intensive coaching sessions include,
for example, how to make effective use of the library, the practice of pleading, and exchanging study experiences, both with
fellow students and also with the student tutor, and academic research. The professor or senior lecturer also fulfils the role of
tutor: he or she is available to help students with questions and problems.
As Stolker explains, ‘The aim of the tutor scheme is to reduce the large numbers of students who drop out or who are forced
to stop their studies because of the Binding Study Recommendation – in the first year some thirty per cent. I find it very
hard to believe that all these students are really not suited to studying law! Of course, there are some students who may
have chosen the wrong study. But for others, the problem is that they start studying too late, they are led astray by the many
opportunities for re-sits, or they do too many other things beside their studies. This is the group we want to get a grip on.
So, we make an agreement with the students: we are prepared to invest in you with a mentoring scheme, and in return you
have to invest in your studies. The students have agreed to treat all the first-year tutorials as compulsory, and have committed
to attend them under penalty of not being allowed to take the examination at the end if they skip the tutorials.’
A third feature is the continuing internationalisation of legal research. The Meijers Institute is committed to becoming a meeting
point for foreign scientists. An inspiring example has been set by the Lorentz Centre, the international scientific meeting
point of the Faculty of Science. Throughout the year, the Lorentz Centre is visited by a constant stream of international scientists
attending the many seminars organised by the Faculty or conducting research there over a period of several months.
21
10
Making your own hair gel
During the Science Day, some 150 students and staff of the Faculty of Science do
their utmost to inspire the visitors – and particularly the 1200 or so children – with
enthusiasm for science. One of the most popular activities is the so-called PretLab
(fun lab), where children can carry out experiments such as, for example, making
hair gel.

The library at the heart of the Law Faculty building.
29
10
Rie Schild receives University Medal
Maria Helena Adriana Schild, better known as Rie, is 84 years old. She celebrates her 60th anniversary as unorthodox housekeeper of ‘t Heerenhoeckje,
Rapenburg 110, a male students’ house. In those 60 years she has been like a mother to more than 100 of ‘her boys’. Rie Schild taught
them to be responsible for their own individual duties, such as ensuring an adequate supply of beer or taking care of the household’s finances.
She even tried to cure their bad habits, such as cheekiness, for example. In the presence of some of ‘her boys’, Rector Paul van der Heijden presents
her with the University Medal for her merits.
��

��
It’s not the pill but health that matters
in Pharmacology
A paradigm shift is currently taking place in drug research, and Leiden scientists are in the front line. The prob-
lem was that the method of one medication for one target protein was far from delivering the desired growth
in medicines, even after the deciphering of the human genome. The solution: change to a systems approach.
The argument behind this is that man is not the sum of his cells, but an integrated network structure. Prof. Meindert
Danhof, pharmacologist and scientific director of the Leiden arm of the Leiden Amsterdam Center for Drug Research
(LACDR), is a firm advocate of this systems approach to pharmacology. ‘You are always on the lookout for materials which
have no effect in healthy people, but which intervene in the process of a disease. You have to understand the disrupted pathways
in the body, and then develop appropriate medicines to deal with them.’ New research areas are making this reversal
possible: genomics for the genes, proteomics for the proteins, and metabolomics for the metabolites, the products of the
metabolic processes in the cell. Consider, for example, an advanced set of instruments to research an enormous number of
molecules, cells and cell particles simultaneously, and computer programmes to analyse all the data, and behold the new
research environment.
It hardly needs to be said that this research is interdisciplinary. Research into sickness and health and into medicines are
two sides of the same coin within the systems approach. Within Leiden University this means close co-operation between
the Faculties of Science (W&N) and Medicine/LUMC. Danhof: ‘The research carried out at the Faculty of Science focuses
primarily on the pre-clinical track. Building a bridge to the Faculty of Medicine/LUMC completes the circle. We want to
extend this co-operation.’ It also means close co-operation with industry. On this subject, he is very brief and to the point:
‘The significance of a product to society is what determines its value. As a pharmacologist, you have to make sure that your
findings reach the market, and particularly at the present moment, companies are ready to leap at fundamental research.
Every month I discuss our portfolio with LURIS.’ LURIS is Leiden University’s technology transfer office.
And then comes co-operation at national level. The trend is towards top institutes and public-private consortia. The reason
for this is that it is crucial to bundle expertise and to work in a uniform way, and because the Netherlands has to compete as
a knowledge country. Here, too, Leiden plays a significant role.
05
11
Leiden jurists to monitor human rights
A team of jurists from Leiden under the leadership of Prof. Rick Lawson has
won a long-term contract from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights in Vienna.
The team’s task is to report periodically on developments in the area of human
rights in the Netherlands. The Agency for Fundamental Rights was established
at the beginning of 2007.

Prof. Meindert Danhof Prof. Thomas Hankemeier
In ����, it was announced that the new TI Pharma top institute would be located in the Leiden Bio Science Park. TI
Pharma is a partnership of �� academic institutes and �� (bio)pharmaceutical companies, which have together received a
pot of money from the government worth � ��� million. Danhof regards the choice in favour of Leiden as an enormous
opportunity and an important recognition of the prominent place played by the University in the world of international
pharmacological research. In line with the new systems concept, TI chose five areas of disease as the starting point. These
are the five priority diseases established in ���� by the WHO: cardio-vascular diseases, auto-immune diseases, cancer,
infectious diseases and conditions of the nervous system. Danhof: ‘In Leiden, as a result of the co-operation between the
University and the LUMC, we have a great deal of expertise in this field in-house. So Leiden can make a significant contribution
to this research.’
In addition, this year, under the flag of the Netherlands Genomics Initiative, two new major public-private partnerships
have been launched, each of which has been given five years and � �� million to prove itself. Leiden is the coordinator of
the first of these, and the LUMC and Leiden University play an important role in the second.
It was the idea of Prof. Thomas Hankemeier, Professor of Analytical Biosciences at the LACDR, to set up a national consortium
of research institutes and companies to further develop and exploit the new field of metabolomics. His success
became apparent in the autumn of ���� with the formation of the new Netherlands Metabolomics Centre (NMC), over
which he himself holds sway. The key question is: what causes the onset of diseases? In the complex network structure
which constitutes the human body, all processes within a cell, between cells, between organisms, etc., are inter-related.
In a healthy person, the system is in balance, but what causes the system to lose that balance at a certain instance, to
lose the ability to stay within the healthy state? One of the keys is the measurement and identification of all the different
metabolites, of which each cell contains hundreds, and body fluids many more, and the identification of the correlation
and networks of metabolites helping to understand the onset and progression of a disease. The NMC will be developing
suitable tools for this. The aim is to measure the whole metabolome and to find biomarkers for disruptions, so that it will
be possible to enable the early diagnosis of multifactorial conditions predicting the risk, progression and efficiency of
intervention options of diseases such as diabetes and neuro-degenerative diseases.
26
11
Cleveringa Lecture by Arthur Kleinman
Cleveringa chair holder Prof. Arthur Kleinman delivers his Cleveringa Lecture:
Today’s Biomedicine and Caregiving: Are they Incompatible to the Point of Divorce?
Kleinman is a psychiatrist and medical anthropologist and is known worldwide in
the field of intercultural psychiatry and global mental health. He lectures on global
health in an Honours Class at the Faculty of Medicine/LUMC.
��

��
A paradigm shift is taking place in drugs research.
27
11
Turkish Institute opened
The Turkish Institute has been opened in The Hague. One of the initiators is Prof. Erik-Jan Zürcher, Professor of Turkish Languages and Cultures at
Leiden University. The Institute’s aim is to improve knowledge in the Netherlands about Turkey, this knowledge having been acquired in a scientific
manner. The reason behind the establishment of the Institute is the tidal wave of questions that has overwhelmed Leiden University’s Department
of Languages and Cultures of the Middle East. Zürcher believes that this is demonstrative of the demand for information about Turkey. He emphasises
that the Institute is not an organ to promote Turkey’s joining the EU. The principal source of finance for the Institute is the business world.

27
11
Prof. Bob van de Water Prof. Leon Mullenders
The second new centre is the Netherlands Toxicogenomics Centre (NTC). Leiden champions are Prof. Bob van de Water of
the LACDR and Prof. Leon Mullenders of the LUMC. The first is Professor of Drug Safety Sciences, the second Professor
of Toxicogenetics. The NTC will be developing new techniques which will allow the safety of chemical substances not only
to be determined, but also predicted. There are several reasons why this is necessary. First of all, too little information is still
available, although the deciphering of the human genome has made a difference. Van de Water: ‘We can already see changes
in gene expression after exposure to a chemical substance, which may predict toxicity. But we also want to know what this
means for the cell, and to have a better understanding of the routes which lead to damage. From gene to protein, from protein
to cell, and from the cell to the communication between cells in tissues and organs.’ This is possible now by applying the
whole new arsenal of ‘-omics’ and analytical capabilities in – once again – a systems approach.
The second impetus is that the EU legislation on substances and the use of laboratory animals is becoming stricter. The use
of laboratory animals for testing cosmetics is expected to be banned in the near future, for example. Existing techniques are
almost completely dependent on animal experiments: the systems approach primarily applies to in vitro and computerised
trials. The emphasis in Leiden is on cancer-inducing substances, substances which affect the liver and kidneys, and on the
dangers for embryos and progeny.
Big is beautiful, but small research groups with spin-offs remain essential. Take, for instance, the co-operation between the
research group of Dr Bert de Boer and Dr Pieter Gaillard’s to-BBB company. They have devised a method of enabling medicines
to pass through the blood-brain barrier, by using a carrier protein. In April, the group, together with researchers from
the Amsterdam Academic Medical Centre AMC, received � ���,��� from the STW foundation to use this transport system
in the development of a new medicine to combat HIV.
But there is one bottleneck: people. Danhof: ‘No matter how much money you have, you still need knowledge workers. I get
telephone calls every day from headhunters. TI-Pharma is looking for ��� post-docs and ��� PhD researchers. Everything
stands or falls with well-trained researchers, so we have to start early. Our way of approaching this is by involving high
school pupils in research through the Leiden Lapp-Top project. They get to experience for themselves that research offers an
exciting prospect for the future.’
Science doctorate in 1937 – for a woman
Sixty years ago, in 1937, she gained her PhD at Leiden in palaeontology: Dr Mien Minis-van de Geijn, now 97 years old. In those days it was a
rare occurrence for a woman to obtain a doctorate in a science subject. But studying was the norm in the Van de Geijn family, even for girls.
However, study was taken as a serious matter. ‘You didn’t fall in love, that was for later.’ Other things go unchanged: Minis-van de Geijn lived in a
female students’ house in the Pieterskerkchoorsteeg and had a part-time job. She was later to become director of the Natural History Museum
in Maastricht.
��

��
03
12
China is booming
China is a potential growth market for Europe. There is now an increasing demand from society for knowledge
about this once impenetrable country. And not only for knowledge about China, but about the whole East Asia
region; as well as the People’s Republic of China, there is also Taiwan, Japan and North and South Korea.
The ���� Olympic Games will be held in China, a development which has not been without its contentions. ‘Those who
are against it consider that the Chinese should first get human rights in their country in order,’ says Professor of Chinese
Language and Literature, Maghiel van Crevel. ‘The supporters, including Chinese human rights activists, believe that the
high level of interest from foreign quarters will be an impetus to create more openness. For China, the Games are in any
event important because the country has felt insulted and ignored as a major civilisation since the nineteenth century. In
addition, since the nineties, human rights in China have become increasingly open for discussion.’ Van Crevel endorses the
view that growing interaction with the international community may well improve the situation, and that it would not have
been constructive to deny China the opportunity to organise the Games.
The call for knowledge about East Asia is reflected in the numbers of students within the Japanese and Chinese departments,
which have witnessed enormous growth. The department of Japanese had already witnessed a major increase in the eighties
when the Japanese economy was flourishing. After the economic bubble burst, interest in the country declined. That growth
in student numbers is now being repeated in the department of Chinese Studies.
Leiden University was in ���� the first university in the Western world to appoint a professor of Chinese and Japanese.
Traditionally, the study of East Asia has been strongly philologically oriented: the country’s culture is studied through knowledge
of the local languages. Language acquisition is therefore also an important element of the studies of Chinese, Japanese
and Korean. In addition to the traditional interest in language, literature, culture, religion and history, in recent decades there
has also been a call for knowledge about East Asia in other fields, such as politics, sociology, economy, international relations
and law. This interest relates to modern East Asia and its interaction with the rest of the world.
Leiden University has striven to focus the study of modern East Asia on recognised ages-old traditions and is therefore
excellently equipped to respond to the requirement for knowledge about this region. The institute which was specifi-
Civil Law in Mandarin Chinese
The Dutch Civil Code has been translated into Mandarin Chinese. Professors Jaap Hijma, Henk Snijders and Hans Nieuwenhuis, inter alia, have
written articles about studies they have made of the background and practice of the most important elements of civil law. These articles have been
translated into Mandarin Chinese and published in Dutch Experience and Re-Codification of Civil Law, a book for jurists in China. Since February
2006 there has been collaboration between the Center for International Legal Cooperation, Leiden University’s Law Faculty and the China University
of Political Science and Law.

The eye-catching Bird’s Nest, symbol of the Olympic Games in China. Prof. Maghiel van Crevel: ‘It would not be constructive to stop China hosting the Games.’
04
12
Florian Holsboer to be awarded Leiden honorary doctorate
Prof. Florian Holsboer, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich,
is to be awarded an honorary doctorate during the celebration of the 433 rd Dies
Natalis on 8 February 2008. This is in honour of his valuable services to biological
psychiatry. Leiden Academy Professor Ron de Kloet will act as honorary supervisor.
��

��
12
12
Prof. Maghiel van Crevel
cally set up to address this area is the Modern East Asia Research Centre (MEARC). The institute is based on a joint Vici
project of the professors of Modern China and Modern Japan.
Many universities have a single scientist within the faculty of social studies or humanities who specialises in East Asia; conversely,
scientists within a department for East Asian studies specialise in one particular area within the humanities or social
sciences. These academics often work in isolation and there is no structure in place for them to work together. As a result,
knowledge becomes fragmented and any co-operation is more by chance than by design. This is not the case in Leiden.
The MEARC is an international centre where excellent scientists from all corners of the world come together to carry out
research, to debate the findings of their research and to disseminate the conclusions among a broad public audience. In
other words, regional experts are not only involved in their own geographic area and experts in a particular field are not
exclusively concerned with that field. As a result, the knowledge generated by all these scientists is cross-border – both literally
and figuratively - and as such is of use to other interested parties.
The MEARC conducts its research based on the concept that mutual relations in the East Asia region are very strong. East
Asian societies cannot therefore be studied in isolation, and comparative research is needed. Similarly, equivalent principles
are applied to the study of the relations between East Asia and other regions, such as Europe.
At the present time, the institute’s researchers are primarily concerned with the history, politics and philosophy of East Asia.
Economy, international relations, sociology and law are also increasingly being studied. This year, for example, a partnership
has been formed with the Van Vollenhoven Institute of the Faculty of Law.
A Chair in Modern Chinese Economy was installed at Leiden University last year, sponsored by Philips. The first holder
of the Chair, Prof. Gong Gang, worked on establishing an Economics Department within the library of the Sinological
Institute. This year, the Philips Chair will be held by Prof. Chu-Chia Steve Lin, who is a professor in the Department of
Economics at the National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan. His programme will include public addresses and lectures.
Student fraternity charts Leiden’s religions
Today the Kosmikos fraternity of the Faculty of Religious Studies presents a book on Leiden’s religions. In celebration of their fifth anniversary,
the members of Kosmikos investigated which religions are practised in Leiden and which ideologies are adhered to. They counted some 35 communities,
varying from Zen to Catholicism and from Baha’i to Islam. The students – participants in the World Religions programme – made in-depth
studies of ten communities: they unravelled the history, attended a service and interviewed members. They also included Sufism in their research
– with a temple in Katwijk – and the Levensstroom in Leiderdorp.

Art historical research combined
with scientific techniques
Leiden art historian Prof. Reindert Falkenburg, together with specialists from the Delft University of
Technology, is currently developing methods whereby centuries old drawings may relinquish more of
their secrets.
On � December, the rectors of Leiden University and the TU Delft signed a covenant: both universities will invest � ���,���
in the CAAS (the Center for Archaeology, Art History and Science). These funds will be geared towards research projects
which have the potential of generating research grants from other sources as well. The development and application of
new methods of art historical and technological research of the Dutch late medieval and early modern drawings from the
Kupferstichkabinett in Dresden is such a project.
The Kupferstichkabinett contains one of the largest and most important collections of drawings and prints in the world.
Among these are some ��� Dutch drawings from the fifteenth, sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In the time of
the DDR, this collection was not open for scholars to probe new and advanced methods of research. Now, the collection
of Dutch drawings is among the first to be explored in these ways. Central issues in the current project are problems of
attribution and purpose of individual drawings. Another important question is whether the group of drawings studied here
already formed a coherent body of material before they became part of the collections of the Kupferstichkabinett, and, in
the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, served as study and practice material for artists who were trained in a (south
German) workshop that had strong ties with the Netherlands.
In order to investigate these questions, much emphasis is being put on the study of material aspects of the drawings,
including the type of paper that was used.
Paper, in those days, was made by placing paper pulp in a sieve, allowing the excess fluid to drain away and then removing
the dried paper from the sieve. Such a paper sieve was a square wooden framework with a narrow grid of horizontally
stretched copper strands. To make the grid stronger, copper wires were added spaced at about �� millimetres from each
other. Since these wires were not placed absolutely parallel to each other, they have left a unique pattern of chain lines in
13
12
CML and University of Oxford embark on collaboration
Tineke Huizinga-Heringa, Secretary of State for Transport, Public Works and Water Management, and
Grace Padaca, Governor of the Province of Isabela (The Philippines) together deliver the First Louwes
Lecture. This lecture marks the beginning of a long-lasting research programme in the area of water
and food in developing countries, in which the Leiden Institute of Environmental Sciences and the
University of Oxford, Great Britain, will work together.
��

��
A drawing depicting mythical monsters (circa ���� – ����) from the Kupferstichkabinett in Dresden, ascribed to Hieronymus Bosch.
18
12
Ian Buruma to be Cleveringa Professor
Erasmus Prize winner of 2008, Prof. Ian Buruma, will be the next Cleveringa Profesor and is due to deliver the Cleveringa Lecture in November.
Buruma, of Anglo-Dutch origin, lives in New York, where he is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights & Journalism at Bard
College. He studied Chinese in Leiden and completed his studies at the Nihon University College of Arts in Tokyo, Japan. Initially, he worked as a
documentary film-maker and photographer, after which he became a journalist and writer. This introduced Buruma to all manner of countries and
cultures. He has become a world citizen and opinion leader in the field of human rights and migration.

27
12
Prof. Reindert Falkenburg
the drying pulp, which can be detected and classified with the help of computer-based analyses. Thus, groups of drawings
can be detected based on material analysis, rather than on stylistic (art historical) criteria alone.
Another new method to investigate paper structures is related to the backlighting of drawings. Traditionally, X-ray techniques
have been used to detect such structures; in this project, Delft specialists experiment with a whole variety of light
sources. The aim of these experiments is to develop relatively inexpensive pieces of equipment that can be used in museums
as a valid alternative to X-ray techniques. In addition, efforts are being made to explore new uses of nanotechnology.
The idea is to direct laser impulses which cause acoustic vibrations onto the surface of the paper. These vibrations can be
recorded by a microphone in an airtight space and can be represented in graphic form. Using this method, it will be possible
to determine in minute detail the material composition of the paper and thus to create a more scientific benchmark for
further art historical research.
This collaborative research is now in the process of being extended to the collections of Leiden University itself. With the
help of the curator of prints and drawings in the University Library, Jef Schaeps, MA, a selection has been made of Dutch
sixteenth-century drawings that are comparable to those in the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett and offer the same kind of challenge
to innovative interdisciplinary research.
This is just one example of a happy marriage between studies in the arts and the sciences, which has become feasible
through the creation of this new Centre of Art and Archaeological Sciences. CAAS currently finances some eight different
projects; in the future it hopes to establish itself as a major forum for research collaboratives in these fields in the Universities
of Leiden, Delft, and beyond.
Promising medicine for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
The research group led by Prof. Gertjan van Ommen (Human and Clinical Genetics), in collaboration with the Leiden biotech company Prosensa,
has developed a promising RNA medicine to remedy the fatal disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). DMD occurs in one in 3,500 newborn
boys. Through the loss of muscle strength as the result of a lack of the protein dystrophin, most of the patients end up in a wheelchair by the age
of twelve, and die in young adulthood. Van Ommen et al. have now developed an injectable medicine that restores the production of dystrophin in
what is anticipated to be a significant quantity. The most important benefit is that this appears to be a viable cure for this disease.
��

��

NWO laureates in 2007
All thirteen Dutch universities compete for the prizes of NWO (the
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research), which awards government
subsidies.
Spinoza Prize
On 28 November, Prof. Wil Roebroeks, Professor of Palaeolithic
Archaeology, was presented with the Spinoza Prize by Minister Ronald
Plasterk. Three other Dutch academics were also similarly honoured.
The Spinoza Prize is the highest scientific prize awarded in the
Netherlands: since 1995 the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific
Research (NWO) has honoured 48 professors with the prize, 11 of
whom were from Leiden University. Each winner receives a sum of
P 1.5 million, sufficient to fund five years’ research of their choice.
Vici grants
On 18 December, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
(NWO) awarded Vici grants to 3 Leiden researchers: Prof. Corinne
Hofman (Caribbean Archaeology), Prof. Judith Pollmann (History) and
Dr Bart Roep (Immunohaematology and Blood Transfusion, Medicine/
LUMC). In 2007, 30 Vici proposals were honoured. The three Vici winners
bring the number of Leiden grants to 16 out of a total of 168 Vici
grants.
Vici grants are intended for excellent, highly experienced researchers
who have successfully developed an innovative line of research and who
are among the top researchers in their particular field. They also have a
proven record in coaching young researchers. Successful applicants are
awarded grants to a maximum of P 1,250,000 to enable them to build up
their own research group over a period of five years.
Vidi grants
On 10 July the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
awarded Vidi grants to 8 Leiden researchers. These were:
• Dr Haico van Attikum (Medicine/LUMC – Toxicogenetics)
• Dr Eveline Crone (Developmental Psychology and Leiden Institute for
Brain and Cognition/LIBC)
• Dr Bernet Elzinga (Clinical and Health Psychology and Leiden Institute
for Brain and Cognition/LIBC)
• Dr Carolien Rieffe (Developmental Psychology)
• Dr Karin Roelofs (Clinical and Health Psychology, Neuropsychology
and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition/LIBC)
• Dr Serge Rombouts (Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition/LIBC,
Medicine/LUMC - Radiology, and Psychology)
• Dr Edward Valstar (Medicine/LUMC - Orthopaedics)
• Dr Alex Yanson (Leiden Institute for Chemistry/LIC - Catalysis)
The Vidi grant is intended for researchers who, having gained their
doctorate, have carried out research at postdoc level for a number of
years. In doing so, they have generated innovative ideas and carried these
through independently to successful development. The researchers are
among the top 10 to 20 per cent of researchers in their particular field.
The grant provides them with the opportunity to develop their own
innovative line of research and to appoint one or more researchers. Each
of them receives a maximum of P 600,000 for new research. This year,
NWO has awarded 83 Vidi grants, 8 of which were to Leiden researchers.
They bring the number of Leiden Vidi grants to 52 out of a total of 479
awarded.
Veni grants
On 3 April, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
awarded 9 Veni grants and on 18 December a further 11 Veni grants to
the following Leiden researchers:
• Dr Bertus Beaumont (Evolutionary Biology & Molecular Microbiology)
• Dr Ilze Bot (Biopharmacy)
• Dr Bert Botma (Linguistics - English)
• Dr Remco Breuker (Korean Language and Culture)
• Dr Elisa Costantini (Astronomy)
• Dr Bleda Düring (Archaeology)
• Dr Kyra Gelderman (Medicine/LUMC - Nephrology)
• Dr Jelle Goeman (Medicine/LUMC - Medical Statistics)
• Dr James Hardwick (Medicine/LUMC - Gastroenterology)
• Dr Larissa van den Herik (International Public Law)
• Dr Irena Ivanovska (Physics)
• Dr Geert Janssen (History)
• Dr Simone Joosten (Medicine/LUMC – Infectious Diseases)
• Dr Alwin Kloekhorst (Comparative Indo-European Linguistics)
• Dr Peter Putman (Clinical, Health and Neuropsychology)
• Dr Marlies Reinders (Medicine/LUMC - Nephrology)
61

62
• Dr Jante Salverda (Biophysics)
• Dr Louis de Smet (Interface Physics)
• Dr Mattie Tops (Child and Family Studies and Data Theory)
• Dr Leendert Trouw (Medicine/LUMC - Rheumatology)
The researchers receive a maximum of P 208,000 in order to develop
ideas and carry out research for a period of three years. The successful
candidates were selected on the grounds of their notable and original
talent for carrying out innovative scientific research. This year, 180
young scientists, among whom 20 were from Leiden, were awarded
Veni grants. The number of Leiden Veni grants is 79 out of a total
of 747 awarded.
Toptalent
This year, these four researchers from Leiden University and Medicine/
LUMC were awarded a so-called Toptalentsubsidie (top talent grant]) by
the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in order to
assist them in gaining their PhD:
• Lucien van Beek (Indo-European Linguistics)
• Ann-Marie Madigan (Leiden Observatory)
• Carolien Stolte (Languages and Cultures of India)
• Aartjan te Velthuis (Medicine/LUMC)
The Toptalent programme was initiated in 2007 to provide talented
final-year students and recent graduates with the freedom to choose the
course of their doctoral research. They receive a maximum of P 180,000
to carry out their research. NWO awarded 41 Toptalent grants.
Mosaic grants
On 4 September, Minister Ronald Plasterk symbolically presented
Mosaic grants to 4 Leiden researchers:
• E. Chabani (Developmental and Educational Psychology)
• Amar Ghisaidoobe (Leiden Institute of Chemistry/LIC)
• Daniil Umanski (Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition/LIBC)
• Kavita Ziemann (Political Science)
The objective of the Mosaic programme is to promote the influx of ethnic
minority researchers into Dutch universities. Graduates are awarded
grants of P 180,000 to assist in the financing of their doctoral research.
In 2007, some 22 talented ethnic minority graduates received this grant
from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The
total number of Leiden graduates receiving the grant since its instigation
in 2004 is 21 out of a total of 88.
Rubicon grants
On 10 April, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
(NWO) awarded 33 Rubicon grants and on 21 December a further 29
Rubicon grants to young researchers. Rubicon offers researchers who
have completed their doctorates in the past year the chance to gain experience
at a top research institution outside the Netherlands and researchers
from abroad the opportunity to spend one year conducting research
in the Netherlands. Dr Birgit Abels from Palau (Oceania) and Dr Sarah
de Mul from the United Kingdom, will come to Leiden University to
carry out research. The following seven Leiden researchers will study
abroad for two years:
• Dr Suzanne Bisschop (Max-Planck-Institut, Germany)
• Dr Alex Geurds (University of Colorado, Germany)
• Dr Johan den Hertog (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)
• Hermen Jan Hupkes, MSc (University of Surrey, GB)
• Dr Petra Kok (Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, USA)
• Esther Lips, MSc (Cancer Research Institute, GB)
• Dr Marit Westerterp (Columbia University, USA)
• Dr Wei Xu (Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, USA)

Students in 2007-2008
In the 2007-2008 academic year, Leiden University welcomed 3,902 new
first year students, an increase of 242 compared to the previous year.
The total number of students is currently 17,616. The table below shows
which bachelor’s programmes they chose. Pages 64-65 give an overview
of master’s students and programmes. Graduates from all the faculties
and international students are shown on page 66.
Bachelor’s Programmes First Year Students 2007-2008
Archaeology
Archaeology 73
Arts
African Languages and Cultures 6
Arabic, Persian and Turkish Languages and Cultures 44
Art History 88
Chinese Studies 117
Classics 33
Comparative Indo-European Linguistics 10
Dutch Language and Culture 60
Egyptian Language and Culture 7
English Language and Culture 120
French Language and Culture 42
German Language and Culture 13
Hebrew and Aramaic Languages and Cultures 5
History 209
Indian and Tibetan Studies 3
Italian Language and Culture 25
Japanese Studies 124
Korean Studies 9
Languages and Cultures of Indonesia 6
Languages and Cultures of Mesopotamia and Anatolia 3
Latin American Studies 53
Linguistics 23
Literary Studies 22
Nederlandkunde/Dutch studies 24
Russian Studies 12
Slavic Language and Culture 8
Law
Criminology 113
Law 678
Notarial Law 36
Tax Law 52
Medicine/LUMC
Biomedical Sciences 62
Medicine 313
Philosophy
Philosophy 59
Religious Studies
Divinity 13
Islamic Theology 18
World Religions 22
Science
Astronomy 11
Biology 74
Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences 89
Computer Science 24
Life Science and Technology 45
Mathematics 37
Molecular Science and Technology 50
Physics 39
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology 65
Education and Child Studies 248
Political Science 169
Psychology 452
Public Administration 94
Total 3902
63

64
Master’s Programmes Students 2007-2008
Archaeology
Archaeology 58
Archaeology (two-year master’s) 22
Arts
African Languages and Cultures 5
African Linguistics 5
African Studies (two-year master’s) 22
Arabic, Persian and Turkish Languages and Cultures 11
Art History 27
Asian Studies (two-year master’s) 4
Book and Digital Media Studies 22
Chinese Studies 14
Classics 4
Comparative Indo-European Linguistics 1
Dutch Language and Culture 36
Egyptian Language and Culture 4
English Language and Culture 46
European Union Studies 25
French Language and Culture 11
German Language and Culture 2
Hebrew and Aramaic Languages and Cultures 2
History 99
History: Societies and Institutions (two-year master’s) 20
Indian American Studies 1
Indian and Tibetan Studies 1
Indonesian Studies 9
Islamic Studies 19
Italian Language and Culture 7
Japanese Studies 8
Korean Studies 0
Languages and Cultures of Mesopotamia and Anatolia 1
Latin American and Amerindian Studies (research) 12
Latin American Studies 19
Linguistics 9
Linguistics: Structure and Variation (two-year master’s) 31
Literary Studies 12
Literature (two-year master’s) 12
Middle Eastern Studies (two-year master’s) 11
Nederlandkunde/Dutch Studies 15
Russian Studies 3
Slavic Languages and Cultures 5
Western and Asian Art History (two-year master’s) 14
Creative and Performing Arts
Photographic Studies 26
Law
Criminology 51
Law 507
Notarial Law 36
Tax Law 60
Advanced Studies in Air and Space Law 28
Advanced Studies in European Business Law 12
Advanced Studies in International Tax Law 42
Advanced Studies in Public International Law 19
Medicine/LUMC
Biomedical Sciences 88

Philosophy
Philosophy 6
Philosophy of a specific discipline 5
Philosophy: Rationality (two-year master’s) 1
Religious Studies
Islamic Theology 5
Religious Studies 9
Religious Studies (two-year master’s) 2
World Religions 8
Science
Astronomy 15
Biology 117
Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences 37
Chemistry 62
Computer Science 26
ICT in Business 66
Life Science and Technology 9
Mathematics 13
Media Technology 68
NanoScience 4
Physics 21
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Behavioural Sciences 7
Child and Educational Studies 1
Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology 27
Education and Child Studies 279
Educational Sciences: Normal and Deviant Patterns of Attachment
and Self Regulated Learning (two-year master’s) 18
International Relations and Diplomacy 45
Political Science 116
Political Science: Institutional Analysis (two-year master’s) 13
Psychology 592
Psychology: Decision Making and Action Control in
Self-Regulation of Human Behaviour (two-year master’s) 36
Public Administration 131
Public Administration: Institutional Change and Reform
(two-year master’s) 5
Teacher Training Programmes 199
Total 3,341
Students per Faculty first year total
Archaeology 73 423
Arts 1,066 3,924
Creative and Performing Arts n/a 26
Law 879 4,021
Medicine/LUMC 375 2,342
Philosophy 59 163
Religious Studies 53 199
Science 369 1,619
Social and Behavioural Sciences 1,028 4,700
Teacher training programmes 199
Total 3,902 17,616
65

66
International Students in Leiden (2006-2007, excl. PhD).
Total: International 1,377 students Students in Leiden (2006-2007, excl. PhD).
Total: 1,377 students
Diplomas per Faculty 2006-2007 First year Bachelor’s students Doctoral students Master’s students Postgraduate
Archaeology 66 47 11 30
Arts
Creative and Performing Arts
Law
Medicine/LUMC
682
n/a
553
332
364
n/a Master’s
Programmes
Master’s 535
Programmes
69
217
n/a
543
358
543
235
409
409
173
Bachelor’s Programmes
3 Bachelor’s Programmes
197
27 223
Philosophy 14 17 6 54 5 Study Abroad Programme
Religious Studies 30 12 4 54 5 Study Abroad Programme 13
Science
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Teacher training programmes
217
794
144
718
81
286
371
371
111
Exchange Programmes
431
Exchange Programmes
93
Total 2,688 1906 1198 982 329
International Students in Leiden (2006-2007, excl. PhD).
Total: 1,377 students
Master’s
Programmes
543
371
409
Bachelor’s Programmes
Study Abroad Programme
Origin of International Students in Leiden (2006-2007, excl. PhD).
54
Exchange Programmes
Origin of International Students in Leiden (2006-2007, excl. PhD).
Origin of International Students in Leiden (2006-2007, excl. PhD).
Africa 55 54
Russia & the former Soviet Union
Middle East
South and Central America
41 28
Africa 55 54
Russia & the former Soviet Union
Middle East
South and Central America
41 28
North America
North America
Asia
Asia
207
207
248
248
744 Europe
744 Europe

Personnel
Leiden University has a staff of approximately 4,500 (3,202 full time equivalents - fte).
Personnel per faculty in fte as of 1 January 2007*
Academic staff PhD candidates Student assistants Non-academic staff Total
Archaeology 30.0 13.8 2.0 15.7 61.4
Theology 19.6 4.6 0.4 4.0 28.6
Creative and Performing Arts 2.1 1.2 -- 3.8 7.2
Arts 300.3 101.4 15.7 128.1 545.5
Law 130.5 60.6 18.8 101.6 311.5
Social Sciences 211.7 89.1 0.8 129.4 431.0
Philosophy 12.6 5.0 0.5 2.4 20.5
Science 331.3 259.0 3.2 344.9 938.5
The Hague Campus 6.2 -- 0.9 18.5 25.7
Institute of Environmental Sciences 19.9 5.0 0.3 9.5 34.7
ICLON** 24.4 8.5 -- 44.3 77.2
Others 11.2 9.1 -- 32,2 52.5
Central Services*** 2.0 0,8 665.6 668.4
Total 1,101.7 557.5**** 43.5 1,500.1 3,202.7
* The Faculty of Medicine is not shown in this table because virtually all personnel are in the employ of the hospital, not the University.
** Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching.
*** Executive Board, Executive Board Support, University Library, Computerisation, Marketing, Communications, Student Affairs,
Internationalisation, Catering Facilities, Graphic Service and Post Service, Parks and Planted Areas, Property, Security and Environment,
and Research & Development services.
**** The Faculty of Medicine/LUMC has 167.7 fte PhD students, in the employ of LUMC. The total comes to 725.2 fte. The University also has at least
an equivalent number of PhD canidates who are not appointed as such, or not employed by the University (external PhD candidates).
Female professors as % of total as at 1 January 2007
1 Jan 2007 1 Jan 2005 1 Jan 2003
Arts 18.6 18.5 21.2
Law 12.03 8.3 8.7
Social Sciences 32.3 29.4 17.6
Science 4.3 5.9 4.3
Average 14.5 *
14.5 12.1
* This is the highest percentage at a Dutch University.
67

68
Executive Board, Deans of Faculties as of 31 December 2007
Executive Board
• Prof. Paul van der Heijden
Rector Magnificus and Chairman
• Prof. Rietje van Dam-Mieras
Vice-Rector Magnificus
• Willem te Beest, MSc
Vice-Chairman
Deans of the Faculties
• Faculty of Archaeology
Prof. Willem Willems
• Faculty of Arts
Prof. Wim van den Doel
• Faculty of Law
Prof. Carel Stolker
• Faculty of Medicine/LUMC
Prof. Eduard Klasen
• Faculty of Performing Arts
Prof. Frans de Ruiter
• Faculty of Philosophy
Prof. Pauline Kleingeld
(as of 1 January 2008 Prof. Bert Bos)
• Faculty of Religious Studies
Prof. Willem Drees
• Faculty of Science
Prof. Sjoerd Verduyn Lunel
• Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Prof. Theo Toonen
(as of 1 January 2008 Prof. Philip Spinhoven)

Finance
Anticipated revenues 2007 in millions of euros*
Government
contribution
305
26
Work for third parties
39 Other revenues
Tuition fees
* Figures from the 2007 budget; the definitive figures were not available at the
time of going to press of the Yearbook 2007.
Anticipated expenses in 2007 in millions of euros*
Income transfers
Debits
Other expenses
19
114
105
Anticipated result in 2007 in millions of euros* -13
53
198
Personnel
expenses
Anticipated expenses in 2007 in millions of euros*
Income transfers
Debits
Other expenses
19
114
105
Anticipated result in 2007 in millions of euros* -13
198
Personnel
expenses
69

70
Adresses
Leiden University
Rapenburg 70
PO Box 9500
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)71 527 27 27
www.leidenuniv.nl
Studielijn
Information about studying in Leiden
Rapenburg 70
PO Box 9500
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)71 527 11 11
studielijn@leidenuniv.nl
www.studereninleiden.nl
www.mastersinleiden.nl
Plexus Student Information Centre
Kaiserstraat 25
PO Box 439
2300 AK Leiden
The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)71 527 80 11
informatiecentrum@leidenuniv.nl
www.plexus.leidenuniv.nl
Admissions Office
PO Box 9500
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)71 527 72 87
study@io.leidenuniv.nl
www.leiden.edu
Visitors’ Centre
Stationsplein 3c
2312 AJ Leiden
The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)71 527 88 80
visitors@io.leidenuniv.nl
www.visitors.leidenuniv.nl
Leiden’s Latest
Electronic, monthly
www.leidenslatest.leidenuniv.nl
Contact & free subscription:
s.a.dehue@io.leidenuniv.nl
University Library
Witte Singel 27
2311 BG Leiden
The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)71 527 28 14
helpdesk@library.leidenuniv.nl
www.ub.leidenuniv.nl
Campus The Hague, Leiden University
Lange Houtstraat 5-7
2511 CV Den Haag
The Netherlands
p + 31 (0)70 302 10 70
f + 31 (0)70 302 10 80
www.campusdenhaag.nl
Pre-University College
PO Box 9555
2300 RB Leiden
The Netherlands
Wassenaarseweg 52
p + 31 (0)71 527 71 68
f + 31 (0)71 527 71 69
pre@iclon.leidenuniv.nl
www.pre-universitycollege.leidenuniv.nl
Hortus botanicus
Rapenburg 73
PO Box 9516
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)71 527 51 44
hortus@hortus.leidenuniv.nl
www.hortus.leidenuniv.nl

72
Real life
Leiden University in 2007
Editors
Wim van Amerongen
Steven Hagers
Corine Hendriks
Dini Hogenelst
Annegien Lucas
Hilje Papma
Translation
Marilyn Hedges
Photos/illustrations
Wim van Amerongen
Marco Borggreve
Taco van der Eb
Marten Engelse
Ben Grishaaver
Felix Guérain
Marc de Haan
André van Haasteren
Ronald Hoogendoorn
Pim Ras/Hollandse Hoogte
Santiago Ramirez
Frans Schellekens/Hollandse Hoogte
Johan van Triest
Design
Ratio Design, Haarlem
Printers
Drukkerij Groen, Leiden
The Yearbook 2007 is published in Dutch and English.
It is available, free of charge, from Leiden University/ICS:
+ 31 (0)71 527 80 26
info@ics.leidenuniv.nl
8 February 2008

Leiden University
The first University in the Netherlands
Founded on 8 February 1575
University motto: Praesidium Libertatis, Bastion of Freedom
Leiden is a Research University which chooses for talent
12 Honours Classes
Pre-University College
Leiden collaborates with other leading universities
in the League of European Research Universities
51 bachelor’s programmes
98 master’s programmes
17,616 students
4,500 staff members
Budget: 425 million euro
www.leidenuniv.nl