Leiden University located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange

William the Silent

William I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born in the House of...

, leader of the Dutch Revolt

Dutch Revolt

The Dutch Revolt or the Revolt of the Netherlands This article adopts 1568 as the starting date of the war, as this was the year of the first battles between armies. However, since there is a long period of Protestant vs...

 in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau

House of Orange-Nassau

The House of Orange-Nassau , a branch of the European House of Nassau, has played a central role in the political life of the Netherlands — and at times in Europe — since William I of Orange organized the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule, which after the Eighty Years' War...

 and Leiden University still have a close relationship. The Queens Juliana

Juliana of the Netherlands

Juliana was the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1948 and 1980. She was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry...

 and Beatrix

Beatrix of the Netherlands

Beatrix is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands comprising the Netherlands, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba. She is the first daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. She studied law at Leiden University...

 and crown-prince Willem-Alexander

Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange

Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange is the eldest child of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus. Since 1980 he is the heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He is also the head of the House of Amsberg since the death of his father in 2002. He was in military service and he studied...

 studied at Leiden University. In 2005 Queen Beatrix

Beatrix of the Netherlands

Beatrix is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands comprising the Netherlands, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba. She is the first daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. She studied law at Leiden University...

 received a rare honorary degree

Honorary degree

An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...

 from Leiden University.

Leiden University has six faculties, over 50 departments and more than 150 undergraduate programmes and enjoys an outstanding international reputation. Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Shanghai Jiao Tong University or SJTU), sometimes referred to as Shanghai Jiaotong University , is a top public research university located in Shanghai, China. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is known as one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China...

's 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities

Academic Ranking of World Universities

The Academic Ranking of World Universities , commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally. The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually...

 ranks Leiden University as the 70th best university worldwide. The 2009 THE-QS World University Rankings ranked Leiden University 60th in the world overall. In 2011 QS World University Rankings

QS World University Rankings

The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....

 has ranked Leiden University as 88th overall, and the 37th best university worldwide for Arts and Humanities. THE 2010 World University Rankings has ranked Leiden University as the best university in Continental Europe for Arts and Humanities. The university is a member of the distinguished Coimbra Group

Coimbra Group

The Coimbra Group is a network of 40 European universities, some among the oldest and most prestigious in Europe. It was founded in 1985 and formally constituted by charter in 1987....

, the Europaeum

Europaeum

The Europaeum is an organisation of ten leading European universities. It was conceived of in 1990–1991 by Lord Weidenfeld and Sir Ronnie Grierson to support the ‘advancement of education through the encouragement of European studies in the University of Oxford and other European institutions of...

 and the League of European Research Universities

League of European Research Universities

The League of European Research Universities is a consortium of Europe's most prominent and renowned research universities.-History and Overview:...

.

Leiden University houses more than 40 national and international research institutes.

History

In 1575, the emerging Dutch Republic

Dutch Republic

The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...

 did not have any universities in its northern heartland. The only other university in the Netherlands was in southern Leuven

Leuven

Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

, firmly under Spanish control. The scientific renaissance had begun to highlight the importance of academic study, so Prince William

William the Silent

William I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born in the House of...

 founded the first Dutch university in Leiden, to give the Northern Netherlands an institution that could educate its citizens for religious purposes, but also to give the country and its government educated men in other fields. It is said the choice fell on Leiden as a reward for the heroic defence of Leiden

Siege of Leiden

The Siege of Leiden occurred during the Eighty Years' War in 1573 and 1574, when the Spanish attempted to capture the rebellious city of Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands, and ultimately failed.-Background:...

 against Spanish attacks in the previous year. Ironically, the name of Philip II of Spain

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

, William's adversary, appears on the official foundation certificate, as he was still the de jure count of Holland

Count of Holland

The Counts of Holland ruled over the County of Holland in the Low Countries between the 10th and the 16th century.-House of Holland:The first count of Holland, Dirk I, was the son or foster-son of Gerolf, Count in Frisia...

. Philps II replied by forbidding any subject to study in Leiden. Originally located in the convent of St Barbara, the university moved to the Faliede Bagijn Church in 1577 (now the location of the University museum) and in 1581 to the convent of the White Nuns, a site which it still occupies, though the original building was destroyed by fire in 1616.

The presence within half a century of the date of its foundation of such scholars as Justus Lipsius

Justus Lipsius

Justus Lipsius was a Southern-Netherlandish philologist and humanist. Lipsius wrote a series of works designed to revive ancient Stoicism in a form that would be compatible with Christianity. The most famous of these is De Constantia...

, Joseph Scaliger

Joseph Justus Scaliger

Joseph Justus Scaliger was a French religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and Ancient Egyptian history.-Early life:He was born at Agen, the tenth child and third son of Italian...

, Franciscus Gomarus

Franciscus Gomarus

Franciscus Gomarus , was a Dutch theologian, a strict Calvinist and opponent of the teaching of Jacobus Arminius , which was formally judged at the Synod of Dort .-Life:His parents, having embraced the principles of the Reformation, emigrated to the Palatinate in 1578, in order...

, Hugo Grotius, Jacobus Arminius

Jacobus Arminius

Jacobus Arminius , the Latinized name of the Dutch theologian Jakob Hermanszoon from the Protestant Reformation period, served from 1603 as professor in theology at the University of Leiden...

, Daniel Heinsius

Daniel Heinsius

Daniel Heinsius was one of the most famous scholars of the Dutch Renaissance.-His youth and student years:...

 and Gerhard Johann Vossius

Gerhard Johann Vossius

thumb|180px|Gerrit Johan VossiusGerrit Janszoon Vos , often known by his Latin name Gerardus Vossius, was a Dutch classical scholar and theologian.-Life:...

, raised Leiden university to be a respected and highly thought of institute within Europe. Renowned philosopher Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza

Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...

 was based close to Leiden during this period and interacted with numerous scholars at the university. The learning and reputation of Jacobus Gronovius, Herman Boerhaave

Herman Boerhaave

Herman Boerhaave was a Dutch botanist, humanist and physician of European fame. He is regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital. His main achievement was to demonstrate the relation of symptoms to lesions...

, Tiberius Hemsterhuis

Tiberius Hemsterhuis

Tiberius Hemsterhuis was a Dutch philologist and critic.-Life:He was born in Groningen. His father, a learned physician, gave him a good early education and he entered the university of his native city in his fifteenth year, where he proved himself the best student of mathematics...

 and David Ruhnken

David Ruhnken

David Ruhnken was a Dutch classical scholar of German origin.-Origins:Ruhnken was born in Bedlin near Stolp, Pomerania Province,...

, among others, enabled Leiden to maintain it's reputation for excellence down to the end of the 18th century.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Leiden University again became one of Europe's leading universities. At the world’s first university low-temperature laboratory, professor Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was a Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate. He pioneered refrigeration techniques, and he explored how materials behaved when cooled to nearly absolute zero. He was the first to liquify helium...

 achieved temperatures of only one degree above absolute zero of -273 degrees Celsius. In 1908 he was also the first to succeed in liquifying helium

Liquid helium

Helium exists in liquid form only at extremely low temperatures. The boiling point and critical point depend on the isotope of the helium; see the table below for values. The density of liquid helium-4 at its boiling point and 1 atmosphere is approximately 0.125 g/mL Helium-4 was first liquefied...

 and can be credited with the discovery of the superconductivity in metals.

Kamerlingh Onnes was awarded the Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

 for Physics in 1913. Three other professors received the Nobel Prize for their research performed at Universiteit Leiden: Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman

Pieter Zeeman

Pieter Zeeman was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Hendrik Lorentz for his discovery of the Zeeman effect.-Childhood and youth:...

 received the Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

 for their pioneering work in the field of optical and electronic phenomena, and the physiologist Willem Einthoven

Willem Einthoven

Willem Einthoven was a Dutch doctor and physiologist. He invented the first practical electrocardiogram in 1903 and received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1924 for it....

 for his invention of the string galvanometer, which among other things, enabled the development of electrocardiography.

These Nobel prize winners, but also the physicists Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...

, Enrico Fermi

Enrico Fermi

Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...

 and Paul Ehrenfest

Paul Ehrenfest

Paul Ehrenfest was an Austrian and Dutch physicist, who made major contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations with quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the Ehrenfest theorem.- Biography :Paul Ehrenfest was born and grew up in Vienna in a Jewish...

, the Arabist and Islam expert Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje

Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje

Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje was a Dutch scholar of Oriental cultures and languages and Advisor on Native Affairs to the colonial government of the Netherlands East Indies ....

, the law expert Cornelis van Vollenhoven

Cornelis van Vollenhoven

Cornelis van Vollenhoven was a Dutch law professor and legal scholar, best known for his work on the legal systems of the East Indies....

 and historian Johan Huizinga

Johan Huizinga

Johan Huizinga , was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern cultural history.-Life:Born in Groningen as the son of Dirk Huizinga, a professor of physiology, and Jacoba Tonkens, who died two years after his birth, he started out as a student of Indo-Germanic languages, earning his...

, were among those who pushed the university into a place of international prominence during the 1920s and 1930s. In 2005 the manuscript of Einstein

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...

 on the quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas (the Einstein-Bose condensation) was discovered in one of Leiden's libraries.

At present, Leiden has a firmly established international position among the top research institutes in many fields, including the natural sciences, medicine, social and behavioural sciences, law, arts and letters. Of the fifty-nine Spinozapremie

Spinozapremie

The Spinozapremie is an annual award by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research of 2.5 million Euro, to be spent on new research. The award is the highest scientific award in the Netherlands...

 (the highest scientific award of The Netherlands), fifteen were granted to professors of the Universiteit Leiden. Literary historian Frits van Oostrom

Frits van Oostrom

Frits van Oostrom , born in Utrecht, Netherlands, is University Professor for the Humanities at the Utrecht University. In 1999 he was a visiting Professor at Harvard for the Erasmus Chair. From September 2004 to June 2005, he was a fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study . He was...

 was the first professor of Leiden to be granted the Spinoza award for his work on developing the NLCM centre (Dutch literature and culture in the Middle Ages) into a top research centre. Other Spinozapremie

Spinozapremie

The Spinozapremie is an annual award by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research of 2.5 million Euro, to be spent on new research. The award is the highest scientific award in the Netherlands...

 winners are linguists Frederik Kortlandt

Frederik Kortlandt

Frederik Herman Henri Kortlandt is a professor of descriptive and comparative linguistics at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He is an expert on Baltic and Slavic languages, the Indo-European languages in general, and Proto-Indo-European, though he has also published studies of languages in...

 and Pieter Muysken, mathematician Hendrik Lenstra

Hendrik Lenstra

Hendrik Willem Lenstra, Jr. is a Dutch mathematician.-Biography:Lenstra received his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in 1977 and became a professor there in 1978...

, Carlo Beenakker

Carlo Beenakker

Carlo W. J. Beenakker is a professor at Leiden University and leader of the university's mesoscopic physics group, established in 1992.Born in Leiden, he graduated there in 1982 and obtained his doctorate two years later...

, who works in the field of mesoscopic physics, Ewine van Dishoeck

Ewine van Dishoeck

Ewine van Dishoeck is a Dutch astronomer and chemist. She is Professor of Molecular Astrophysics at Leiden Observatory.She is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences...

, astronomer at Leiden Observatory

Leiden Observatory

Leiden Observatory is an astronomical observatory in the city of Leiden, Netherlands. It was established by Leiden University in 1633, to house the quadrant of Snellius, and is the oldest operating University observatory in the world Leiden Observatory (Sterrewacht Leiden in Dutch) is an...

, transplantation biologist Els Goulmy

Els Goulmy

Els Goulmy is professor of transplantation biology, especially regarding minor histocompatibility antigen, at Leiden University. She was awarded the Spinozapremie in 2002. She is the chair of the Dutch Network of Female Professors .-External links:...

, clinical epidemiologist Frits Rosendaal, Rien van IJzendoorn professor of education and child studies, physicist Jan Zaanen

Jan Zaanen

Jan Zaanen is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He is best known for his contributions to the understanding of the quantum physics of the electrons in strongly correlated material, and in particular High temperature superconductivity...

, archeologist Wil Roebroeks

Wil Roebroeks

Wil Roebroeks is the professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He is widely considered to be the pre-eminent Dutch archaeologist. In 2001 he became a member of the influential Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences...

, neurologist Michel Ferrari, classicist Ineke Sluiter, social psychologist Naomi Ellemers and astronomer Marijn Franx. Among other leading professors are Wim Blockmans

Wim Blockmans

Wim Pieter Blockmans is Professor of Medieval History at Leiden University.He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Ghent. He has been Rector of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study since September 2002...

, professor of Medieval History, and Willem Adelaar

Willem Adelaar

Willem F. H. Adelaar is a Dutch linguist on American autochthonous languages, specially Andean languages. He is Professor of indigenous American Linguistics and Cultures at Leiden University.-Selected publications:...

, professor of Amerindian Languages.

The portraits of many famous professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

s since the earliest days hang in the university aula, one of the most memorable places, as Niebuhr

Carsten Niebuhr

Carsten Niebuhr or Karsten Niebuhr , a German mathematician, cartographer, and explorer in the service of Denmark, is renowned for his travels on the Arabian peninsula.-Biography:...

 called it, in the history of science.

The University Library

Leiden University Library

Leiden University Library is a library founded in 1575 in Leiden, Netherlands. It is regarded as a significant place in the development of European culture: it is a part of a small number of cultural centres that gave direction to the development and spread of knowledge during the Enlightenment...

, which has more than 3.5 million books and fifty thousand journals, also has a number of internationally renowned special collections of western and oriental manuscripts, printed books, archives, prints, drawings, photographs, maps, and atlases. Scholars from all over the world visit Leiden University Library

Leiden University Library

Leiden University Library is a library founded in 1575 in Leiden, Netherlands. It is regarded as a significant place in the development of European culture: it is a part of a small number of cultural centres that gave direction to the development and spread of knowledge during the Enlightenment...

, the oldest in the Netherlands. The research activities of the Scaliger Institute focus on these special collections and concentrate particularly on the various aspects of the transmission of knowledge and ideas through texts and images from antiquity to the present day.

Among the institutions affiliated with the university are The KITLV

KITLV

The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies at Leiden was founded in 1851. Its objective is the advancement of the study of the anthropology, linguistics, social sciences, and history of Southeast Asia, the Pacific Area, and the Caribbean. Special emphasis is laid on...

 or Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (founded in 1851), the observatory

Leiden Observatory

Leiden Observatory is an astronomical observatory in the city of Leiden, Netherlands. It was established by Leiden University in 1633, to house the quadrant of Snellius, and is the oldest operating University observatory in the world Leiden Observatory (Sterrewacht Leiden in Dutch) is an...

 1633; the natural history museum, with a very complete anatomical cabinet; the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden

Rijksmuseum van Oudheden

The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden is the national archaeological museum of the Netherlands. It is located in Leiden. The Museum grew out of the collection of Leiden University and still closely co-operates with its Faculty of Archaeology...

(National Museum of Antiquities), with specially valuable Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n departments; a museum of Dutch antiquities from the earliest times; and three ethnographical museums, of which the nucleus was Philipp Franz von Siebold

Philipp Franz von Siebold

Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold was a German physician and traveller. He was the first European to teach Western medicine in Japan...

's Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese collections. The anatomical

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 and pathological

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

 laboratories of the university are modern, and the museums of geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 and mineralogy

Mineralogy

Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...

 have been restored.

The Hortus Botanicus

Hortus Botanicus Leiden

The Hortus botanicus of Leiden is the oldest botanical garden of the Netherlands, and one of the oldest in the world. It is located in the southwestern part of the historical centre of the city, between the Academy building and the Leiden Observatory....

 (botanical garden) is the oldest botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 in the Netherlands, and one of the oldest in the world. Plants from all over the world have been carefully cultivated here by experts for more than four centuries. The Clusius garden (a reconstruction), the 18th century Orangery with its monumental tub plants, the rare collection of historical trees hundreds of years old, the Japanese Siebold Memorial Museum

Siebold Memorial Museum

was opened in Nagasaki city in 1989 in honour of Philipp Franz von Siebold's great contributions to the development of modern science in Japan. The building is modeled on his former house in Leiden and is located next to the site of his original clinic and boarding school known as Narutaki Juku.The...

 symbolising the historical link between East and West, the tropical greenhouses with their world class plant collections, and the central square and Conservatory exhibiting exotic plants from South Africa and southern Europe.

Research at Leiden is well developed. There are many university research institutes and Leiden participates in over forty nation-wide research schools, twelve of which being located in the heart of Leiden.

The institution

The university has no central campus; its buildings are spread over the city. Some buildings, like the Gravensteen, are very old, while buildings like Lipsius and Gorlaeus are much more modern. The university is divided into six major faculties which offer approximately 50 undergraduate degree programs and over 100 graduate programs. In recent years the university has also expanded to The Hague where it occupies a college building in Lange Voorhout, which is located in the historic centre of the city.

{|
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|Humanities

Humanities

The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

|Website
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|Law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

|Website
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|Medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 or LUMC

Leiden University Medical Center

The Leiden University Medical Center or LUMC, is the university hospital affiliated with Leiden University, of which it forms the medical faculty...

|Website
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|Mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 and Natural Sciences
|Website
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|Social and Behavioural sciences

Behavioural sciences

The term behavioural sciences encompasses all the disciplines that explore the activities of and interactions among organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behaviour through controlled and naturalistic observation, and disciplined...

|Website
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|Archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

|Website
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Undergraduate programs

Most of the university's departments offer their own degree program(s). Undergraduate programs lead to either a B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

, B.Sc.

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 or LL.B.

Bachelor of Laws

The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...

 degree. Other degrees, such as the B.Eng.

Bachelor of Engineering

The Bachelor of Engineering is an undergraduate academic degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at universities in Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland , Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Korea,...

 or B.F.A.

Bachelor of Fine Arts

In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...

, are not awarded at Leiden University.

African Languages and Cultures Archeology Arabic, Persian and Turkish Languages and Cultures Art History Assyriology Astronomy Biology Biomedical Sciences Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences Chemistry Chinese Languages and Cultures Classics Comparative Indo-European Linguistics Computer Science Criminology Cultural Anthropology Developmental Sociology Dutch Language and Literature Dutch Studies Educational Sciences Egyptian Languages and Cultures (Egyptology) English Language and Culture French Language and Culture German Language and Culture History Hebrew and Aramaic Languages and Cultures Indian American Studies

Indology (South and central Asia) Indonesian Languages and Cultures Italian Language and Culture Japanese Languages and Cultures Korean Languages and Cultures Latin American Studies (Spanish Languages and Cultures) Law (General Dutch Law track) Linguistics Life Science and Technology Literature Mathematics Medicine (6-year track) Molecular Science and Technology Near Eastern Studies New Persian Languages and Cultures (Turkish) Notarial Law Philosophy Physics Political Science Public Administration Psychology Russian Studies Slavic Languages and Literatures Southeast Asia and Oceania Languages and Cultures Tax Law Theology World Religion Studies

Graduate studies

Students can choose from a range of graduate programs. Most of the above mentioned undergraduate programs can be continued with either a general or a specialised graduate program. Leiden University offers more than 100 graduate programs leading to either M.A.

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

, M.Sc.

Master of Science

A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

, M.Phil.

Master of Philosophy

The Master of Philosophy is a postgraduate research degree.An M.Phil. is a lesser degree than a Doctor of Philosophy , but in many cases it is considered to be a more senior degree than a taught Master's degree, as it is often a thesis-only degree. In some instances, an M.Phil...

, or LL.M. degrees

Master of Laws

The Master of Laws is an advanced academic degree, pursued by those holding a professional law degree, and is commonly abbreviated LL.M. from its Latin name, Legum Magister. The University of Oxford names its taught masters of laws B.C.L...

. The M.Phil. is a special research degree and only awarded by selected departments of the university (mostly in the fields of Arts, Social Sciences, Archeology, Philosophy, and Theology). Admission to these programs is highly selective and primarily aimed at those students opting for an academic career.
Some of the notable graduate programs are
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• Air and Space Law
• Asian Studies
• Bioinformatics
• Chemistry
  • Industrial Ecology M.Sc. (track)
• DNA Computing
• Drug Delivery Technology and Biopharmaceutics
• European Law
• European and International Business Law
• European Union Studies
• Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences
• Functional Genomics

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• History
• ICT in Business
• Public International Law
• International Relations and Diplomacy
• International Tax Law
• Islamic Studies
• Life Science and Technology
• Linguistics
• Mathematics
• Media Technology
• Nanoscience
• Philosophy of a Specific Discipline
• Toxicology

|}

Doctorate programs

In addition, most departments, affiliated (research) institutes or faculties offer doctorate programs or positions, leading to the Ph.D

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 degree. Most of the Ph.D. programs offered by the university are concentrated in several research schools or institutes.

Research schools and affiliated institutes

Leiden University has more than 50 research and graduate schools and institutes. Some of them are fully affiliated with one faculty of the university, while others are interfaculty institutes or even interuniversity institutes.

{|
!align=left|Institute
!
|-
|ASC
| Research Centre for African Studies

Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden

The African Studies Centre is an independent scientific institute in the Netherlands that undertakes social-science research on Africa with the aim of promoting a better understanding of historical, current and future social developments in Sub-Saharan Africa. The present director is Ton Dietz...

|-
|CML
|Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)
|-
|CNWS
| Research School of Asian, African, and American Studies
|-
|CRC
| Crisis Research Centre
|-
|CTI
| Center for Language and Identity
|-
|E.M. Meijers Institute
| Research School for Legal Studies
|-
|eLaw@Leiden
| Centre for Law in the Information Society
|-
|Grotius

Hugo Grotius

Hugo Grotius , also known as Huig de Groot, Hugo Grocio or Hugo de Groot, was a jurist in the Dutch Republic. With Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili he laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law...

 Centre
| Research Centre for International Legal Studies
|-
|GSS
| Leiden Graduate School of Science
|-
|Historical Institute
| Research Institute of History
|-
|Huizinga

Johan Huizinga

Johan Huizinga , was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern cultural history.-Life:Born in Groningen as the son of Dirk Huizinga, a professor of physiology, and Jacoba Tonkens, who died two years after his birth, he started out as a student of Indo-Germanic languages, earning his...

 Instituut
| Research Institute and Graduate School of Cultural History
|-
|IBL
| Research Institute for Biology
|-
|IIAS
| International Institute for Asian Studies
|-
|IOPS
| Interuniversity Graduate School Psychometrics and Sociometrics
|-
|ISED
| Institute for the Study of Educational and Human Development
|-
|ITC
|International Tax Center (ITC)
|-
|LACDR
| The Leiden Amsterdam Center for Drug Research
|-
|LCMBS
| Leiden Centre for Molecular BioScience
|-
|Leyden Academy
|Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing
|-
|LGSAS
| Leiden Graduate School for Archeology
|-
|LIACS
| Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science
|-
|LIBC
|Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition

Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition

The Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition or LIBC is an interfaculty center for interdisciplinary research on brain and cognition in The Netherlands. The Leiden University Medical Center and the Faculties of Humanities, Science and Social Behavioural Sciences of Leiden University participate in...

|-
|LIC
| Leiden Institute of Chemistry
|-
|LION
| Leiden Institute of Physics
|-
|LISOR
| Leiden Institute for the Study of Religion
|-
|LUCL
| Leiden University Centre for Linguistics
|-
|LUMC
| Leiden University Medical Centre
|-
|LUMI
| Leiden University Mathematical Institute
|-
|Mediëvistiek
| Netherlands Research School for Medieval Studies
|-
|NIG
| Netherlands Institute of Government
|-
|NOVA
| Netherlands Research School for Astronomy
|-
|N.W. Posthumus Instituut
| Netherlands Research Institute and School for Economic and Social History
|-
|OIKOS
| National Graduate School in Classical Studies
|-
|Onderzoekschool Kunstgeschiedenis
| Dutch Postgraduate School for Art History
|-
|OSL
| Netherlands Graduate School for Literary Studies
|-
|PALLAS
| Research Institute of Art History and Literatures of the Western World
|-
|Polybios
|Graduate School for Political Science and International Affairs
|-
|Sterrewacht Leiden

Leiden Observatory

Leiden Observatory is an astronomical observatory in the city of Leiden, Netherlands. It was established by Leiden University in 1633, to house the quadrant of Snellius, and is the oldest operating University observatory in the world Leiden Observatory (Sterrewacht Leiden in Dutch) is an...

| Leiden Astronomical Observatory
|-
|The Europa Institute
| Research Institute for Legal Studies in the Field of European Integration
|-
|Van Vollenhoven Institute
|Research Institute for Law, Governance and Development
|}

Notable alumni and professors

{|
|-
|

• A
• Piet Aalberse
  Piet Aalberse
  Petrus Josephus Mattheus Aalberse was a Dutch politician, and the first Dutch Minister of Labor, a position which later evolved into the Minister of Economic Affairs....
  
  , politician
• Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, theologian
• John Quincy Adams
  John Quincy Adams
  John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...
  
  , 6th President of the United States of America
• Princess Aimée of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven-Söhngen, royalty
• Nebahat Albayrak
  Nebahat Albayrak
  Nebahat Albayrak is a Turkish-Dutch politician and former civil servant. As a member of the Dutch Labour Party she is a former State Secretary for Justice in the Netherlands. Since May 12, 2010 she has been an MP. From April till August 2011 she was on maternity leave...
  
  , politician
• Johannes Alberti
  Johannes Alberti
  Johannes Alberti, born in Assen on 6 March 1698, was the son of a corn miller; because of the distance between his parental house and the school, he could hardly visit the latter. It also appears as if his parents have at first neglected the education of their child. Luckily the miler's apprentice,...
  
  , theologian
• Bernhard Siegfried Albinus
  Bernhard Siegfried Albinus
  Bernhard Siegfried Albinus was a German-born Dutch anatomist.Albinus was born at Frankfurt , where his father, Bernhard Albinus , was professor of the practice of medicine...
  
  , anatomist
• Alexander, Prince of Orange
  Alexander, Prince of Orange
  Willem Alexander Charles Henry Frederick, Prince of Orange , , was heir apparent to his father King William III of the Netherlands from 11 June 1879 until his death.-Life:...
  
  , royalty
• Princess Anita of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven-van Eijk, royalty
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  Ayaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...
  
  , activist
• Jacobus Arminius
  Jacobus Arminius
  Jacobus Arminius , the Latinized name of the Dutch theologian Jakob Hermanszoon from the Protestant Reformation period, served from 1603 as professor in theology at the University of Leiden...
  
  , theologian
• Tobias Asser, Nobel laureate (Peace 1911)
• B
• Caspar Barlaeus
  Caspar Barlaeus
  Caspar Barlaeus was a Dutch polymath and Renaissance humanist, a theologian, poet, and historian.-Life:...
  
  , theologian
• Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen of the Netherlands
• Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck
  Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck
  Jhr. Charles Joseph Maria Ruijs de Beerenbrouck was a Dutch nobleman and Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1918 to 1925 and again from 1929 to 1933...
  
  , Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1918-25, 1929–33
• Coenraad van Beuningen
  Coenraad van Beuningen
  Coenraad van Beuningen was the Dutch Republic's most experienced diplomat, burgemeester of Amsterdam in 1669, 1672, 1680, 1681, 1683 and 1684, and from 1681 a VOC director...
  
  , diplomat
• Kune Biezeveld
  Kune Biezeveld
  Kunegonda Elizabeth Biezeveld was a Dutch theologian. She was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church ....
  
  , theologian
• Nicolaas Bloembergen
  Nicolaas Bloembergen
  Nicolaas Bloembergen is a Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate.He received his Ph.D. degree from University of Leiden in 1948; while pursuing his PhD at Harvard, Bloembergen also worked part-time as a graduate research assistant for Edward Mills Purcell at the MIT Radiation Laboratory...
  
  , Nobel laureate (Physics 1981)
• Herman Boerhaave
  Herman Boerhaave
  Herman Boerhaave was a Dutch botanist, humanist and physician of European fame. He is regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital. His main achievement was to demonstrate the relation of symptoms to lesions...
  
  , physician
• Bart Bok
  Bart Bok
  Bart Jan Bok was a Dutch-American astronomer.He was born in the Netherlands, but spent a good deal of his childhood days growing up in what was then known as the Dutch East Indies. He was educated at the Leiden and Groningen Universities. In 1929 he married fellow astronomer Dr...
  
  , astronomer
• Frits Bolkestein
  Frits Bolkestein
  Frederik "Frits" Bolkestein is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy . He served as a Member of the House of Representatives from 16 January 1978, until 5 November 1982, when he became State Secretary for Economic Affairs from 5 November 1982, until 14 July...
  
  , Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands 2005-6
• Gerardus Johannes Petrus Josephus Bolland
  Gerardus Johannes Petrus Josephus Bolland
  Gerardus Johannes Petrus Josephus Bolland , also known as G.J.P.J. Bolland, was a Dutch autodidact , linguist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and lecturer...
  
  , philosopher
• Ben Bot
  Ben Bot
  Bernard Rudolf "Ben" Bot is a Dutch diplomat of the Christian Democratic Appeal . He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from December 3, 2003 until February 22, 2007 in the Cabinets Balkenende II and III....
  
  , politician
• Alexander Boswell
  Alexander Boswell (judge)
  Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck, 8th Laird of Auchinleck was a judge of the supreme courts of Scotland. He was the father of the author and biographer James Boswell, and grandfather of songwriter Sir Alexander Boswell....
  
  , judge
• Rolf Bremmer
  Rolf Bremmer
  Rolf Hendrik Bremmer is a Dutch academic. He is professor of Old and Middle English, and extraordinary professor of Old Frisian, at Leiden University.-Biography:...
  
  , academic
• Laurens Jan Brinkhorst
  Laurens Jan Brinkhorst
  Laurens Jan Brinkhorst is a Dutch D66 politician.Brinkhorst was an undersecretary of state of foreign affairs and a minister of agriculture. Furthermore he was the leader of the D66-group in the Second Chamber of the Dutch parliament...
  
  , politician
• Thomas Browne
  Thomas Browne
  Sir Thomas Browne was an English author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric....
  
  , writer
• Sebald Justinus Brugmans
  Sebald Justinus Brugmans
  Sebald Justinus Brugmans was a Dutch botanist, physician and professor of natural sciences.Brugmans studied at the University of Groningen, where he earned doctorates in medicine and philosophy, and also a masters degree in liberal arts...
  
  , botanist
• Armin van Buuren, musician
• Ian Buruma
  Ian Buruma
  Buruma is a nephew of the English film director John Schlesinger, a series of interviews with whom he published in book form.-Works:*The Japanese Tattoo with Donald Richie ISBN 978-0-8348-0228-5...
  
  , writer
• Kofi Abrefa Busia
  Kofi Abrefa Busia
  Kofi Abrefa Busia was Prime Minister of Ghana from 1969–72. He was born in Wenchi, in the then British colony of Gold Coast . He was educated at Methodist School, Wenchi, Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast, then at Wesley College, Kumasi from 1931–32. He later became a teacher at Achimota Secondary...
  
  , Prime Minister of Ghana 1969-72
• John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
  John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
  John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute KG, PC , styled Lord Mount Stuart before 1723, was a Scottish nobleman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain under George III, and was arguably the last important favourite in British politics...
  
  , Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1762-63
• Paulus Buys
  Paulus Buys
  Paulus Buys, heer van Zevenhoven and Capelle ter Vliet was Grand Pensionary of Holland between 1572 to 1584.-Life:...
  
  , Grand Pensionary of Holland 1572-84
• C
• Archibald Cameron
  Archibald Cameron of Locheil
  Dr Archibald Cameron of Lochiel was a prominent leader in the Jacobite uprising of 1745 and the last Jacobite to be executed for high treason on June 7, 1753.-Before the uprising:...
  
  , Jacobite physician
• Hendrik Casimir
  Hendrik Casimir
  Hendrik Brugt Gerhard Casimir FRS was a Dutch physicist best known for his research on the two-fluid model of superconductors in 1934 and the Casimir effect Hendrik Brugt Gerhard Casimir FRS (July 15, 1909 in The Hague, Netherlands – May 4, 2000 in Heeze) was a Dutch physicist best known...
  
  , physicist
• Carolus Clusius, botanist
• Jacques Cohen
  Jacques Cohen
  Jacques Cohen is a Dutch embryologist living in New York, in the U.S. He is currently Director at Reprogenetics, LLC, Laboratory Director at ART Institute of Washington at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center , and Scientific Director of R & D at IVF-online...
  
  , embryologist
• Job Cohen
  Job Cohen
  Marius Job Cohen is a Dutch social democratic politician and former legal scholar of Jewish background. Since 2010 he has been the leader of the Labour Party and since June 17, 2010 he has been a member of the House of Representatives, where he also is the Parliamentary group leader of the Labour...
  
  , politician
• Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands
  Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands
  Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands is the third and youngest son of Queen Beatrix and the late Prince Claus of the Netherlands. His godparents are King Constantine II of Greece, Prince Aschwin zu Lippe-Biesterfeld, Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst, Max Kohnstamm, and Mrs. C...
  
  , royalty
• Jan Kappeyne van de Coppello
  Jan Kappeyne van de Coppello
  Joannes Kappeyne van de Coppello was a Dutch liberal politician. He was prime minister of the Netherlands between 1877 and 1879.-Career before politics:...
  
  , Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1877-79
• Pieter de la Court
  Pieter de la Court
  Pieter de la Court was a Dutch economist and businessman. He pioneered modern thinking about the economic importance of free competition and was an uncompromising advocate of the republican form of government.-Biography:...
  
  , economist
• Ludolph van Ceulen
  Ludolph van Ceulen
  Ludolph van Ceulen was a German / Dutch mathematician from Hildesheim. He emigrated to the Netherlands....
  
  , mathematician
• Jodocus Crull
  Jodocus Crull
  Jodocus Crull, M.D., FRS was a late 17th-century and early 18th-century "miscellaneous writer" of historical subjects with political and sociological insights...
  
  , miscellaneous writer
• Petrus Cunaeus
  Petrus Cunaeus
  Petrus Cunaeus was the pen name of the Dutch Christianscholar Peter van der Kun. His book The Hebrew Republic is considered "the most powerful statement of republican theory in the early years of the Dutch Republic." -Biography:Cunaeus enrolled at the University of Leyden at the age of fourteen,...
  
  , academic
• D
• René Descartes
  René Descartes
  René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
  
  , philosopher
• Nicolaas Diederichs, President of South Africa 1975-78
• Edsger W. Dijkstra, computer scientist
• Volkert Doeksen
  Volkert Doeksen
  Volkert Doeksen is a private equity investor and founder of AlpInvest Partners , one of the largest private equity investments managers globally with over €40 billion of assets under management...
  
  , CEO of AlpInvest Partners
  AlpInvest Partners
  AlpInvest Partners is a private equity investment manager and at the end of 2009 globally managed over €42 billion ....
  
  
• Ana Dolidze
  Ana Dolidze
  Anna Dolidze is a public interest lawyer from Georgia. In 2004–2006 Dolidze was the President of the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association, the leading human rights organization in Georgia. Dolidze targeted legal reform, advocated for government transparency, accountability, and criminal justice...
  
  , lawyer
• Adriaen van der Donck
  Adriaen van der Donck
  Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific Jonkheer the city of Yonkers, New York is named...
  
  , lawyer
• Janus Dousa
  Janus Dousa
  Janus Dousa [Jan van der Does] lord of Noordwyck , Dutch statesman, historian, poet and philologist, the first Librarian of Leiden University Library and the defender of Leiden,-Biography:...
  
  , statesman
• Johannes van den Driesche
  Johannes van den Driesche
  Johannes van den Driesche [or Drusius] was a Flemish Protestant divine, distinguished specially as an Orientalist, Christian Hebraist and exegete.-Life:He was born at Oudenarde, in Flanders...
  
  , theologian
• Thomas von der Dunk
  Thomas von der Dunk
  Thomas von der Dunk is a Dutch cultural historian, writer, and columnist who has written for de Volkskrant and HP/De Tijd....
  
  , historian
• E
• Paul Ehrenfest
  Paul Ehrenfest
  Paul Ehrenfest was an Austrian and Dutch physicist, who made major contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations with quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the Ehrenfest theorem.- Biography :Paul Ehrenfest was born and grew up in Vienna in a Jewish...
  
  , physicist
• Willem Einthoven
  Willem Einthoven
  Willem Einthoven was a Dutch doctor and physiologist. He invented the first practical electrocardiogram in 1903 and received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1924 for it....
  
  , Nobel laureate (Medicine 1924)
• Albert Einstein
  Albert Einstein
  Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
  
  , Nobel laureate (Physics 1921)
• Simon Episcopius
  Simon Episcopius
  Simon Episcopius was a Dutch theologian and Remonstrant who played a significant role at the Synod of Dort in 1618...
  
  , theologian
• Paul Sophus Epstein
  Paul Sophus Epstein
  Paul Sophus Epstein was a Russian-American mathematical physicist...
  
  , physicist
• Thomas van Erpe
  Thomas van Erpe
  Thomas van Erpe [known as Thomas Erpenius] , Dutch Orientalist, was born at Gorinchem, in Holland....
  
  , orientalist
• F
• Enrico Fermi
  Enrico Fermi
  Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
  
  , Nobel laureate (Physics 1938)
• Henry Fielding
  Henry Fielding
  Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
  
  , English novelist
• Paul Fleming
  Paul Fleming
  Paul Fleming was a German poet. He was born Hartenstein, in Vogtland, Saxony, and received first medical training at the University of Leipzig and his medical doctorate at Hamburg....
  
  , German poet

||

• Prince Floris of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven
  Prince Floris of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven
  -External links:*...
  
  , royalty
• John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall
  John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall
  Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall, 2nd Baronet, Lord Fountainhall was one of Scotland's leading jurists who remains to this day an oft consulted authority...
  
  , jurist
• Prince Frederick of the Netherlands
  Prince Frederick of the Netherlands
  Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau , was the second son of king William I of the Netherlands and his wife, Wilhelmine of Prussia....
  
  , royalty
• G
• Thomas Girdlestone
  Thomas Girdlestone
  Thomas Girdlestone was an English physician and writer.-Education and career:After a classical education at Gresham's School, Holt, Girdlestone joined the army as a surgeon's mate, serving under Colonel Sir Charles Stuart, governor of Minorca, and in India...
  
  , physician
• Michiel Jan de Goeje, orientalist
• Franciscus Gomarus
  Franciscus Gomarus
  Franciscus Gomarus , was a Dutch theologian, a strict Calvinist and opponent of the teaching of Jacobus Arminius , which was formally judged at the Synod of Dort .-Life:His parents, having embraced the principles of the Reformation, emigrated to the Palatinate in 1578, in order...
  
  , theologian
• Johann Georg Graevius
  Johann Georg Graevius
  Johann Georg Graevius was a German classical scholar and critic. He was born at Naumburg....
  
  , academic
• Jacobus Gronovius, academic
• Hugo Grotius, jurist
• Lemuel Gulliver
  Lemuel Gulliver
  Lemuel Gulliver is the protagonist and narrator of Gulliver's Travels, a novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726.-In Gulliver's Travels:...
  
  , protagonist of 'Gulliver's Travels'
• H
• Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz
  Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz
  Geertruida Luberta de Haas-Lorentz was a female Dutch physicist and the first to perform fluctuational analysis of electrons as Brownian particles. Consequently she is considered to be the first female in electrical noise theory. She was the eldest daughter of the physicist H. A. Lorentz and...
  
  , physicist
• Melanie Schultz van Haegen
  Melanie Schultz van Haegen
  Melanie Henriëtte Schultz van Haegen-Maas Geesteranus is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy . She was State Secretary for Transport, Public Works and Water Management. She is the Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment in the Rutte cabinet.-References:...
  
  , politician
• Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX
  Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX
  Hamengkubuwono IX or HB IX was the first Governor of the Yogyakarta Special Region, the ninth Sultan of Sultanate of Yogyakarta and the second vice president of Indonesia during the Suharto's reign.-Early life:...
  
  , Vice President of Indonesia 1973-78
• Jan Hamer
  Jan Hamer
  Jan Hamer was an organic chemistry professor at Tulane University in New Orleans from 1960—1992. A Dutch citizen, Hamer received his Ph.D. from the University of Leiden in The Netherlands. He authored three chemistry books and was listed in Who's Who in the South and Southwest...
  
  , chemist
• Mohammad Hatta
  Mohammad Hatta
  was born in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, Dutch East Indies . He was Indonesia's first vice president, later also serving as the country's Prime Minister. Known as "The Proclamator", he and a number of Indonesians, including the first president of Indonesia, Sukarno, fought for the independence of...
  
  , Prime Minister of Indonesia 1948-50
• David Hartley (the Younger)
  David Hartley (the Younger)
  David Hartley, the younger , statesman, scientific inventor, and the son of the philosopher David Hartley. He was Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull, and also held the position of His Britannic Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary, appointed by King George III to treat with the United...
  
  , politician
• Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema
  Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema
  Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema DFC RMWO , was a Dutch wartime RAF-pilot, Dutch spy and writer. He was a Knight 4th class of the Military William Order....
  
  , RAF pilot and Dutch spy
• Daniel Heinsius
  Daniel Heinsius
  Daniel Heinsius was one of the most famous scholars of the Dutch Renaissance.-His youth and student years:...
  
  , scholar
• Touraj Atabaki, academic
• Tiberius Hemsterhuis
  Tiberius Hemsterhuis
  Tiberius Hemsterhuis was a Dutch philologist and critic.-Life:He was born in Groningen. His father, a learned physician, gave him a good early education and he entered the university of his native city in his fifteenth year, where he proved himself the best student of mathematics...
  
  , philologist
• Paul Hermann
  Paul Hermann
  Paul Hermann was a German born physician and botanist who for 15 years was director of the Hortus Botanicus Leiden....
  
  , botanist and physician
• Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart
  Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart
  Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart was a Dutch politician and diplomat. He was the first United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ....
  
  , Nobel laureate (Peace 1954)
• Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
  Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
  Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Jr. was a Dutch physical and organic chemist and the first winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry. He is best known for his discoveries in chemical kinetics, chemical equilibrium, osmotic pressure, and stereochemistry...
  
  , Nobel laureate (Chemistry 1901)
• Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp
  Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp
  Gijsbert Karel, Count van Hogendorp was a conservative Dutch statesman. He was the brother of Dirk van Hogendorp the elder and the father of Dirk van Hogendorp the younger....
  
  , Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1813-14
• Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
  Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
  Jakob Gijsbert "Jaap" de Hoop Scheffer is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal . He served as the 11th Secretary General of NATO from January 5, 2004 until August 1, 2009....
  
  , 11th Secretary-General of NATO
• Johannes Hudde, politician and mathematician
• Johan Huizinga
  Johan Huizinga
  Johan Huizinga , was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern cultural history.-Life:Born in Groningen as the son of Dirk Huizinga, a professor of physiology, and Jacoba Tonkens, who died two years after his birth, he started out as a student of Indo-Germanic languages, earning his...
  
  , historian
• Christiaan Huygens, mathematician and physicist
• Constantijn Huygens, Jr.
  Constantijn Huygens, Jr.
  Constantijn Huygens Jr. was a Dutch statesman also known for his work on scientific instruments and as a chronicler of his times...
  
  , statesman
• J
• Maarten Jansen
  Maarten Jansen
  Prof. Dr. Maarten Evert Reinoud Gerard Nicolaas Jansen is a Dutch academic and professor of Mesoamerican archaeology and history. As of 2007 Jansen holds the position of Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University, Netherlands...
  
  , academic
• Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, royalty
• K
• Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
  Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
  Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was a Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate. He pioneered refrigeration techniques, and he explored how materials behaved when cooled to nearly absolute zero. He was the first to liquify helium...
  
  , Nobel laureate (Physics 1913)
• Egbert van Kampen
  Egbert van Kampen
  Egbert Rudolf van Kampen was a mathematician. He made important contributions to topology, especially to the study of fundamental groups....
  
  , mathematician
• Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern
  Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern
  Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern was a Dutch linguist and Orientalist. In the literature, he is usually referred to as H...
  
  , linguist
• Pieter Kooijmans
  Pieter Kooijmans
  Pieter Hendrik Kooijmans is a Dutch jurist, politician, and diplomat. He was a member of the Anti Revolutionary Party and is now a member of its successor party the Christian Democratic Appeal. He was State Secretary and later Minister of Foreign Affairs...
  
  , judge of the International Court of Justice
• Ton Koopman
  Ton Koopman
  Ton Koopman is a conductor, organist and harpsichordist.Koopman had a "classical education" and then studied the organ , harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam...
  
  , conductor
• Tjalling Charles Koopmans, Nobel laureate (Economics 1975)
• Hendrik Anthony Kramers
  Hendrik Anthony Kramers
  Hendrik Anthony "Hans" Kramers was a Dutch physicist.-Background and education:...
  
  , physicist
• Abraham Kuijper, Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1901-05
• L
• Lousewies van der Laan
  Lousewies van der Laan
  Louse Wies Sija Anne Lilly Berthe van der Laan is a former Dutch politician and the leader of the parliamentary group of the social liberal Democrats 66 in the House of Representatives for six months in 2006...
  
  , politician
• Jona Lendering
  Jona Lendering
  Jona Lendering is a Dutch historian and the author of books on antiquity, Dutch history and modern management...
  
  , historian
• Hendrik Lenstra
  Hendrik Lenstra
  Hendrik Willem Lenstra, Jr. is a Dutch mathematician.-Biography:Lenstra received his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in 1977 and became a professor there in 1978...
  
  , mathematician
• Justus Lipsius
  Justus Lipsius
  Justus Lipsius was a Southern-Netherlandish philologist and humanist. Lipsius wrote a series of works designed to revive ancient Stoicism in a form that would be compatible with Christianity. The most famous of these is De Constantia...
  
  , philologist and humanist
• Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, Nobel laureate (Physics 1902)
• Joseph Luns
  Joseph Luns
  Joseph Marie Antoine Hubert Luns was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Catholic People's Party now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal . He was the longest-serving Minister of Foreign Affairs from September 2, 1952 until July 6, 1971...
  
  , 5th Secretary-General of NATO
• M
• Peter Mair
  Peter Mair
  Peter Mair was an Irish political scientist. He was professor of Comparative Politics at the European University Institute in Florence.-Career:...
  
  , political scientist
• Princess Margriet of the Netherlands
  Princess Margriet of the Netherlands
  Princess Margriet Francisca of the Netherlands is the third daughter of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands...
  
  , royalty
• Eric Mazur
  Eric Mazur
  Eric Mazur is a prominent physicist and educator at Harvard University. Mazur is known for his work in experimental ultrafast optics and condensed matter physics and a national leader in science education...
  
  , physicist
• Richard Mead
  Richard Mead
  Richard Mead was an English physician. His work, A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it , was of historic importance in the understanding of transmissible diseases.-Life:The eleventh child of Matthew Mead , Independent divine, Richard was born...
  
  , physician
• Victor Muller
  Victor Muller
  Victor Roberto Muller is a Dutch businessman. He is the founder and CEO of Dutch car company Spyker Cars NV, and current chairman and CEO of the Swedish car company Saab Automobile AB.-Education and early career:...
  
  , CEO of the car companies Spyker Cars and Saab Automobile AB
• Pieter van Musschenbroek
  Pieter van Musschenbroek
  Pieter van Musschenbroek was a Dutch scientist. He was a professor in Duisburg, Utrecht, and Leiden, where he held positions in mathematics, philosophy, medicine, and astrology. He is credited with the invention of the first capacitor in 1746: the Leyden jar. He performed pioneering work on the...
  
  , scientist
• N
• William Frederick, Prince of Nassau-Dietz, royalty
• O
• Jan Hendrik Oort, astronomer
• Ivo Opstelten
  Ivo Opstelten
  Ivo Willem Opstelten is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy . He is the Minister of Security and Justice in the Cabinet Rutte since October 14, 2010....
  
  , politician
• P
• Peter Simon Pallas
  Peter Simon Pallas
  Peter Simon Pallas was a German zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia.- Life and work :Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery Simon Pallas. He studied with private tutors and took an interest in natural history, later attending the University of Halle and the University...
  
  , zoologist
• Thomas Parker
  Thomas Parker (minister)
  Thomas Parker was an English nonconforming clergyman and founder of Newbury, Massachusetts.-Life:He was born probably at Stanton St. Bernard, Wiltshire, the only son of the Reverend Robert Parker, M.A. and Dorothy Stephens. He was admitted into Magdalen College, Oxford, but left when his father...
  
  , Puritan minister and scholar
• Perizonius
  Perizonius
  Perizonius was the name of Jakob Voorbroek , a Dutch classical scholar, who was born at Appingedam in Groningen....
  
  , scholar

||

• Nicolaas Gerard Pierson
  Nicolaas Gerard Pierson
  Nicolaas Gerard Pierson was a Dutch Liberal financial and economic expert, politician, and statesman, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Netherlands from 1897 until 1901....
  
  , Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1897-1901
• Theodoor Gautier Thomas Pigeaud
  Theodoor Gautier Thomas Pigeaud
  Theodoor Gautier Thomas Pigeaud was an expert in Javanese literature from the Netherlands. He especially became famous for his Java-Netherlands dictionary that Poerwadarminto chose as foundation of Baoesastra Djawa...
  
  , academic
• Archibald Pitcairne
  Archibald Pitcairne
  Archibald Pitcairne was a Scottish physician.- Early life :Pitcairne was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. After obtaining some classical education at the school of Dalkeith, Pitcairne entered Edinburgh University in 1668, and took his degree of MA in 1671...
  
  , physician
• Ronald Plasterk
  Ronald Plasterk
  Ronald Hans Anton Plasterk is a Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He was Minister of Education, Culture and Science from February 22, 2007 until February 23, 2010 in the Cabinet Balkenende IV. He has been a Member of the House of Representatives since June 17, 2010. He focuses on matters of...
  
  , scientist and politician
• Prijono
  Prijono
  Prijono was an Indonesian politician and academic. Prijono was a leading figure of the Murba Party and the Indonesian Peace Committee. Prijono served as Minister of Education and Culture between 1957 and 1966...
  
  , politician
• R
• Hans Ras
  Hans Ras
  Johannes Jacobus Ras was emeritus professor of Javanese language and literature at Leiden University, the Netherlands...
  
  , academic
• Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt
  Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt
  Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt was a Prussian-born Dutch botanist.Reinwardt was the founder and first director of agriculture of the botanic garden at Bogor in Java...
  
  , botanist
• Rembrandt van Rijn, painter
• Caspar Reuvens
  Caspar Reuvens
  Caspar Jacob Christiaan Reuvens was a Dutch historian and archaeologist. He was the founding director of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, the world's first ever professor of archaeology , and conducted the first excavations at the Roman provincial site Forum Hadriani...
  
  , archaeologist
• John Robinson
  John Robinson (pastor)
  John Robinson was the pastor of the "Pilgrim Fathers" before they left on the Mayflower. He became one of the early leaders of the English Separatists, minister of the Pilgrims, and is regarded as one of the founders of the Congregational Church.-Early life:Robinson was born in Sturton le Steeple...
  
  , pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers
• Wil Roebroeks
  Wil Roebroeks
  Wil Roebroeks is the professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He is widely considered to be the pre-eminent Dutch archaeologist. In 2001 he became a member of the influential Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences...
  
  , archaeologist
• David Ruhnken
  David Ruhnken
  David Ruhnken was a Dutch classical scholar of German origin.-Origins:Ruhnken was born in Bedlin near Stolp, Pomerania Province,...
  
  , scholar
• Mark Rutte
  Mark Rutte
  Mark Rutte is a Dutch politician who has been Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 14 October 2010, as well as Minister of General Affairs in the Rutte cabinet...
  
  , Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• S
• Martinus Theunis Steyn
  Martinus Theunis Steyn
  Martinus Theunis Steyn was a South African lawyer, politician, and statesman, sixth and last president of the independent Orange Free State from 1896 to 1902....
  
  , South African lawyer, statesman, sixth president of the Orange Free State
• Joseph Justus Scaliger
  Joseph Justus Scaliger
  Joseph Justus Scaliger was a French religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and Ancient Egyptian history.-Early life:He was born at Agen, the tenth child and third son of Italian...
  
  , theologian and scholar
• Henry G. Schermers
  Henry G. Schermers
  Henricus Gerhard "Hein" Schermers was a pioneering giant in three areas of law: International Institutional Law, the Law of the European Union and European Human Rights Law. He played a key role in developing these subjects through his writings...
  
  , jurist
• Edith Schippers
  Edith Schippers
  Edith Ingeborg Schippers is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy , and was elected as deputy party leader in 2006. She was a Member of the House of Representatives from 2003 until 2010. On October 14, 2010 she became Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport.-References:...
  
  , politician
• Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
  Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
  Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck , Lord of Nyenhuis, Peckedam and Gellicum, was a Dutch politician of the Batavian Republic and an investor in the Holland Land Company....
  
  , Grand Pensionary of Holland 1805-6
• Gerard Schouw
  Gerard Schouw
  Adrianus Gerardus Schouw is a Dutch politician. As a member of Democrats 66 he has been an MP since June 17, 2010...
  
  , politician
• William Sherard
  William Sherard
  William Sherard was an English botanist. Next to John Ray, he was considered to be one of the outstanding English botanists of his day.-Life:...
  
  , botanist
• Boudewijn Sirks
  Boudewijn Sirks
  Adriaan Johan Boudewijn Sirks , known as Boudewijn Sirks and as A. J. B. Sirks, is a Dutch academic lawyer and papyrologist specializing in Roman law...
  
  , academic
• Willem de Sitter
  Willem de Sitter
  Willem de Sitter was a Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer.-Life and work:Born in Sneek, De Sitter studied mathematics at the University of Groningen and then joined the Groningen astronomical laboratory. He worked at the Cape Observatory in South Africa...
  
  , physicist
• Jan Six
  Jan Six
  Jan Six was an important cultural figure in the golden age of the Netherlands.-Biography:...
  
  , politician
• Willebrord Snell, astronomer
• Rudolph Snellius
  Rudolph Snellius
  Rudolph Snellius Rudolph Snellius Rudolph Snellius (Rudolph Snel van Royen (Oudewater, 5 October 1546 – Leiden, 2 March 1613) was a Dutch linguist and mathematician who held appointments at the University of Marburg and the University of Leiden...
  
  , mathmatician and linguist
• Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje
  Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje
  Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje was a Dutch scholar of Oriental cultures and languages and Advisor on Native Affairs to the colonial government of the Netherlands East Indies ....
  
  , orientalist
• Achmad Soebardjo
  Achmad Soebardjo
  Raden Achmad Soebardjo Djojoadisoerjo was a diplomat, one of Indonesia's founding fathers, and an Indonesian national hero. He was the first Foreign Minister of Indonesia...
  
  , diplomat
• Soenario, politician
• Soetan Sjahrir, Prime Minister of Indonesia 1945-7
• Myles Standish
  Myles Standish
  Myles Standish was an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military advisor for Plymouth Colony. One of the Mayflower passengers, Standish played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony from its inception...
  
  , military leader
• Jan Steen
  Jan Steen
  Jan Havickszoon Steen was a Dutch genre painter of the 17th century . Psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour are marks of his trade.-Life:...
  
  , painter
• Pieter Steyn
  Pieter Steyn
  Pieter Steyn was Grand Pensionary of Holland from June 18, 1749 to November 5, 1772.He was the son of Johanna Patijn and Adriaan Steyn, burgomaster of Haarlem and studied Law in Leiden between 1724 and 1726. Both his marriages were without issue...
  
  , Grand Pensionary of Holland 1749-72
• Max van der Stoel
  Max van der Stoel
  Max van der Stoel, KCMG was a Dutch politician and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. He served as the first High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe....
  
  , politician
• Bram van der Stok
  Bram van der Stok
  Bram van der Stok, MBE , also referred to as Bob van der Stok, was the most decorated aviator in Dutch history, as well as one of the three men to escape to freedom in "the Great Escape" from German POW camp Stalag Luft III....
  
  , aviator
• Dirk Jan Struik
  Dirk Jan Struik
  Dirk Jan Struik was a Dutch mathematician and Marxian theoretician who spent most of his life in the United States.- Life :...
  
  , mathematician
• Franciscus Sylvius
  Franciscus Sylvius
  Franciscus Sylvius , born Franz de le Boë, was a Dutch physician and scientist who was an early champion of Descartes', Van Helmont's and William Harvey's work and theories...
  
  , physician and scientist
• T
• Morris Tabaksblat
  Morris Tabaksblat
  Morris Tabaksblat, KBE , was a Dutch captain of industry. He was a former CEO of Unilever and chairman of the Tabaksblat committee which drafted the Tabaksblat code.-Education:...
  
  , former CEO of Unilever
• Igor Tamm
  Igor Tamm
  Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm was a Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate who received most prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Ilya Frank, for the discovery of Cherenkov radiation, made in 1934.-Biography:Tamm was born in Vladivostok, Russian Empire , in a...
  
  , Nobel laureate (Physics 1958)
• Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1971-72
• Jan Tinbergen
  Jan Tinbergen
  Jan Tinbergen , was a Dutch economist. He was awarded the first Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1969, which he shared with Ragnar Frisch for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes...
  
  , Nobel laureate (Economics 1969)
• Nikolaas Tinbergen
  Nikolaas Tinbergen
  Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen was a Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns in animals.In the 1960s he...
  
  , Nobel laureate (Medicine 1973)
• Christa Tobler
• Nicolaes Tulp
  Nicolaes Tulp
  Nicolaes Tulp was a Dutch surgeon and mayor of Amsterdam. Tulp was well known for his upstanding moral character.-Life:...
  
  , surgeon and politician
• U
• Christianus Cornelius Uhlenbeck
  Christianus Cornelius Uhlenbeck
  Christianus Cornelius Uhlenbeck was a Dutch linguist and anthropologist with a wide variety of research interests. His published work included books and articles on Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages, Sanskrit, Basque, and the Blackfeet language of North American Indians...
  
  , linguist and anthropologist
• V
• Ronald Venetiaan
  Ronald Venetiaan
  Ronald Runaldo Venetiaan served as the 6th and 8th President of Suriname. His first term as president ran from 1991 to 1996 after which he lost in the elections to Jules Wijdenbosch...
  
  , 6th and 8th President of Suriname
• Maxime Verhagen
  Maxime Verhagen
  Maxime Jacques Marcel Verhagen is a Dutch politician in the Christian Democratic Appeal party. He is the Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and Deputy Prime Minister since October 14, 2010 in the Cabinet Rutte.He previously served as a Member of the European Parliament for...
  
  , Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• Paul Verhoeven, film Director
• Gerard Verschuuren
  Gerard Verschuuren
  Gerard M. Verschuuren is a writer, speaker, and consultant, working at the interface of science, philosophy, and religion. He is a human geneticist who also earned a doctorate in the philosophy of science, and studied and worked at universities in Europe and the United States...
  
  , geneticist
• Gisbertus Voetius
  Gisbertus Voetius
  Gisbertus Voetius was a Dutch Calvinist theologian.-Life:...
  
  , theologian
• Cornelis van Vollenhoven
  Cornelis van Vollenhoven
  Cornelis van Vollenhoven was a Dutch law professor and legal scholar, best known for his work on the legal systems of the East Indies....
  
  , academic
• Pieter van Vollenhoven
  Pieter van Vollenhoven
  Pieter van Vollenhoven, Jr. is the husband of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands and a member of the Dutch Royal House.-Early life and career:Born in Schiedam, he is the second son of Pieter van Vollenhoven, Sr...
  
  , royalty
• Gerhard Johann Vossius
  Gerhard Johann Vossius
  thumb|180px|Gerrit Johan VossiusGerrit Janszoon Vos , often known by his Latin name Gerardus Vossius, was a Dutch classical scholar and theologian.-Life:...
  
  , theologian
• Gijs de Vries
  Gijs de Vries
  Gijs M. de Vries is a Dutch Democrats 66 politician. He was deputy Interior Minister between 1998 and 2002, and was the European Union's anti-terrorism co-ordinator from 25 March 2004 to March 2007...
  
  , poltician
• Jouke de Vries
  Jouke de Vries
  Jouke de Vries is a professor at Leiden University in Leiden.De Vries grew up in the village of Balk in Friesland and in 1979 started his studies in political science at the University of Amsterdam. He has been working at the group Leaderships Art at the University of Leiden since 1984. De Vries...
  
  , academic
• W
• Johannes Diderik van der Waals
  Johannes Diderik van der Waals
  Johannes Diderik van der Waals was a Dutch theoretical physicist and thermodynamicist famous for his work on an equation of state for gases and liquids....
  
  , Nobel laureate (Physics 1910)
• Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands 1890-1948
• John Wilkes
  John Wilkes
  John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist and politician.He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives...
  
  , politician
• William I, Prince of Orange
  William the Silent
  William I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born in the House of...
  
  , royalty
• Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange
  Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange
  Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange is the eldest child of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus. Since 1980 he is the heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He is also the head of the House of Amsberg since the death of his father in 2002. He was in military service and he studied...
  
  , heir to the Dutch throne
• Hendrik de Wit
  Hendrik de Wit
  Hendrik Cornelis Dirk de Wit was a Dutch systematic botanist who contributed significantly to the knowledge of the Aroid genera Cryptocoryne and Lagenandra...
  
  , botanist
• Johan de Witt
  Johan de Witt
  Johan de Witt, heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp and IJsselveere was a key figure in Dutch politics in the mid 17th century, when its flourishing sea trade in a period of globalization made the United Provinces a leading European power during the Dutch Golden Age...
  
  , Grand Pensionary of Holland 1653-72
• Z
• Pieter Zeeman
  Pieter Zeeman
  Pieter Zeeman was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Hendrik Lorentz for his discovery of the Zeeman effect.-Childhood and youth:...
  
  , Nobel laureate (Physics 1902)
• Tim de Zeeuw
  Tim de Zeeuw
  Pieter Timotheus "Tim" de Zeeuw is a Dutch astronomer specializing in the formation, structure and dynamics of galaxies. He was educated at...
  
  , astronomer
• Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder
  Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder
  Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder S.J. was a Dutch expert in the Old Javanese language. He came from Utrecht and was associated with the Society of Jesus by 1925. He worked at Leiden University in the 1930s. His first work appeared in 1930 and he continued to write into the 1990s...
  
  , academic

|}

International acclaim

In the 2009 THE–QS World University Rankings list the University of Leiden was ranked inside the top 100 for the fourth consecutive year. However, in 2010 it dropped 22 places in the QS World University Rankings

QS World University Rankings

The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....

 to 82nd from its position of 60th in the 2009 THE-QS Rankings (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings

Times Higher Education World University Rankings

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an international ranking of universities published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provided citation database information...

 and QS World University Rankings

QS World University Rankings

The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....

 parted ways to produce separate rankings). In the Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by Shanghai Jiaotong University Leiden has been in the top hundred universities worldwide since the tables inception in 2003 and in 2010 was ranked 70th overall. The University is associated with at least fourteen recipients of the Nobel Prize

An overview of the THE-QS Rankings up to 2009:

{| class=wikitable
|-
!Year !! Rank (Change)
|-
|2005||138
|-
|2006||90 ( 48)
|-
|2007||84 ( 6)
|-
|2008||64 ( 20)
|-
|2009||60 ( 4)
|}

An overview of the Academic Ranking of World Universities up to 2011:

{| class=wikitable
|-
!Year !! Rank (Change)
|-
|2003||78
|-
|2004||63 ( 15)
|-
|2005||63
|-
|2006||72 ( 9)
|-
|2007||71 ( 1)
|-
|2008||76 ( 5)
|-
|2009||72 ( 4)
|-
|2010||70 ( 2)
|-
|2011||65 ( 5)
|}

See also

• Leiden University College The Hague
  Leiden University College The Hague
  Leiden University College The Hague offers BA & BSc programmes in Liberal Arts & Sciences, which provides both broad, general education and in-depth specialization. The programmes address global issues, topics, theories and systems classified according to the broad domains of Peace, Justice and...
  
  
• List of early modern universities in Europe

External links

• Homepage of Leiden University (in English)
• Homepage of Leiden University (in Dutch)
• Graduate Programs in English
• Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography