Plant architecture has distinct forms in different plant species, but also within a species the finalarchitecture of a plant is determined by its gradual development and changes therein induced by environmental conditions during the plant’s life cycle.

The Vallesian, 11.1-9 Ma, was a special time in the Vallès-Penedes basin near Barcelona, where a biodiversity hotspot existed. Europe had a subtropical climate, with rhinos, forest giraffes, lions, hyenas, flying squirrels and primates.

Even though more than 4000 extra-solar planets are known today, only a small fraction of these has been captured in an image. To better understand the planet formation mechanisms in solar-like environments we started the Young Suns Exoplanet Survey (YSES).

Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is the second most common type of breast cancer.

Promotor: W.Th.F. den Hollander Co-Promotor: F.M. Spieksma

Microbiome composition of the spermosphere and the rhizosphere of wild and modern bean accessions grown in an agricultural and a native soil from Colombia was characterized by metagenomics and cultivation-dependent approaches.

We study the interplay of topology and geometry with chirality for several passive and active systems, employing both analytical and numerical methods.

Promotor: Prof.dr. D. Bouwmeester

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. Metastasis, the process by which cancer cells spread to other parts of the body, makes treatments less effective. It is important to unravel the mechanism of metastasis.

In multi/many-core System-on-Chips (SoCs), the performance is almost linearly scaling with the number of processing elements.

In this thesis, topics relating to the optimization of high-throughput pipelines used for imaging are discussed. In particular, different levels of implementation, i.e., conceptual, software, and hardware, are discussed and the thesis outlines how advances on each level need to be made to make gains…

Gold nanoparticles show surprisingly strong interactions with light in the visible range, which can be divided into scattering, absorption, and photoluminescence.

In the first part of this thesis we study the geometry of folding patterns.

What physics controls the properties of quantum matter, such as how electrons flow inside high-temperature superconductors? This question has captivated the physics community and industry for decades, in part due to the great technological potential such materials have, but also because they have resisted…

Carbohydrates, alongside proteins and nucleic acids, constitute a crucial and versatile family of biomolecules present in all life forms. They manifest as monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides, covalently bonded to proteins and fats. Carbohydrates are integral to plant and arthropod…

Tin electrodeposition applications have rapidly evolved in the past 25 years.

Voltammetry plays a crucial role in modern scientific research by offering valuable insights into the electrochemical properties of materials, with wide-ranging applications in fields such as materials science, energy storage, corrosion studies, and sensor development.

In this thesis, I studied the origin and evolution of the non-thermal radiation in merging galaxy clusters.

Animal diet studies are critical for understanding ecological processes such as trophic interactions, energy flow, and nutrient cycling. By examining what animals consume, ecologists gain insights into species specialization, predator-prey relationships, and ecosystem management.

Radiography is an important technique to inspect objects, with applications in airports and hospitals. X-ray imaging is also essential in industry, for instance in food safety checks for the presence of foreign objects.

In this thesis we study the landscape of gravitational models which modify GR by introducing an additional scalar degree of freedom (d.o.f.) to source Cosmic Acceleration.

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.L.V. Linnartz

Synthesis and application of chemical biology tools to study immunomodulatory signaling lipids.

A plasma is an ionized gas with very low electrical resistivity. As such, magnetic field lines are 'frozen in' and move with the fluid. Magnetic field lines that are linked, knotted and tangled, cannot be undone by the fluid motions.

Heterogeneous catalyzed processes are highly significant to the chemical industry. Dissociative chemisorption (DC) of molecules on surfaces is always considered as a step with a high degree of rate control for heterogeneous catalysis.

Pectin is a plant cell wall polysaccharide made of mainly D-galacturonic acid (GA) subunits. The potency of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger to naturally secrete high amounts of pectinases to degrade pectin has been utilized for the industrial production of pectinases.

Heterogeneous catalysis is one of the fundamental processes of modern life, being common in industrial refinery and hydrogen vehicles, all the way to the living cell. The dissociation of H2 on Cu(111) is an important benchmark system for studying heterogeneous catalysis, with a large and varied amount…

The research in this thesis is focused on tomographic reconstruction based on two imaging modalities in electron microscopy.

Promotor: Ed F. Deprettere, Co-promotor: Todor P. Stefanov

Organisms often need to adapt more efficiently and devise new strategies for surviving difficult ecological circumstances.

Electron microscopy has become an extremely important techniquein a wide variety of elds.

This thesis is devoted to an in-depth examination of the various effects of disorder in the cuprate high-temperature superconductors.

Promotores: C. J. ten Cate; M. A. Ainslie. Co-promotor: W. Slabbekoorn

Ice, the solid state of water, plays an important role on our planet as well as the entire universe.Despite the fact that an individual water molecule has a very simple structure, its chemical bonding in the solid phase can be surprisingly complex.

With the help of quantum mechanics, digital quantum hardware may be able to tackle some of the problems that are too difficult for ordinary computers. But despite these expectations and the ongoing effort of the research community, reliable quantum computers are not yet realized in a lab setting.

Bacterial biocatalysis constitutes a sustainable alternative for high-value chemicals production by enabling the utilization of renewable feedstocks.

The parabolic Anderson model (PAM), which is the Cauchy problem for the heat equation with random potential. The PAM is a mathematical model that describes how mass (i.e. matter or energy) flows in a medium in the presence of a field of sources and sinks.

Na het afronden van de bacheloropleiding volgen verreweg de meeste studenten de masteropleiding. De Universiteit Leiden stimuleert studenten om na hun bacheloropleiding door te gaan met de masteropleiding.

Fundamental understanding of molecular reactions on metal surfaces is important for improving heterogeneous catalysis.

Promotor: G.J. Kramer Co-Promotor: E.G.M. Kleijn

This thesis investigates the evolution and fate of gaseous exoplanets, which are continuously shaped by stellar activity across both short and long timescales.

Planten, algen en bacteriën zetten zonlicht om in chemische energie. In een workshop van het Lorentz Center inventariseren onderzoekers de mogelijkheden om dit proces van fotosynthese te benutten en imiteren, met het oog op een duurzame brandstofvoorziening. De vrijdagmiddagsessie is openbaar.

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.J. Kroes

Stellar feedback is a crucial ingredient in the evolution of galaxies.

This PhD-thesis presents a study on micron-sized particles, so-called colloids. By controlling the chemical and physical properties of these particles, such as the interparticle interaction and the particles’ shape, colloids can act as building blocks that self-assembly into larger structures.

The redox-conversion reaction of metal-disulfide and metal-thiolate complexes are important, as they may shed light on electron-transfer reactions that often occur in Nature.

Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) biedt een 3-jarige bacheloropleiding aan waarin je je focust op Global Challenges; grote uitdagingen waar de mensheid mee te maken heeft: Vrede & Rechtvaardigheid, Diversiteit, Duurzaamheid en Welvaart. Je hebt ruimte om de opleiding zo in te richten als je…

Promotor: Prof.dr. T. Schmidt, Co-Promotor: S.J.T. van Noort

Electrons in a crystal lattice have properties that may differ from those of a free electron in vacuum.

Hoe dacht men tijdens de Renaissance over seks? Den Hartog neemt je mee op een tocht vol vervreemding én herkenning, en laat je met een nieuwe blik kijken naar seksuele opvattingen van toen en nu.