Night of Discoveries
The Night of Discoveries is an annual event in Leiden, focusing on science and culture. The Young Academy Leiden is a recurring contributor to the Night of Discoveries.
The Night of Discoveries & YAL 2023
Like previous editions, also in this edition of the Night of Discoveries, Young Academy Leiden filled part of the program. Our goal was to share our stage with our community, and invited people from our community to suggest topics that they wanted to present. As such, the topic of our event was “Meet the researcher of tomorrow”, in which young academics had the ability to present their work to a layman audience, followed by a panel discussion tailored towards the questions: How can your research help the citizens of Leiden, and how can the citizens of Leiden engage in your research.
In our selection of presenters, we prioritized people that were at the time of subscription not yet a YAL member, and aimed for diversity among faculties.
19:15 - Scientific Artificial Intelligence for Astrophysics
Speaker: Samira Rezaei (Science), moderator: Julia Cramer (Science), panelist: Thomas Moerland (Science)
20:15 Tax havens - what can we do to prevent them
Speaker: Federica Casano (Law), moderator: Thomas Moerland (Science), panelist: Cristiana Strava (Humanities)
21:15 - Mental health research in the next decade - new technologies
Speaker: Eiko Fried (FSW), moderator: Hilde van Meegdenburg (FSW), panelist: Nienke de Graef (LUMC)
22:15 - Fighting Climate Change in Coastal Cities: Harnessing Citizen Science
Speaker: Cristiana Strava (Humanities), Moderator: Lauren Fonteyn (Humanities), panelist: Hilde van Meegdenburg (FSW)
23:15 - Health and the right time to exercise
Speaker: Milena Schönke (LUMC), moderator: Francesca Arici (Science), panelist: Thomas Moerland (Science)
The speaker gave a 12-minute presentation, after which the remainder of the time was a panel discussion including the audience.
The Night of Discoveries & YAL 2022
Young Academy Leiden’s interactive escape box Discover the rich history of Leiden University by playing this interactive escape box. Members of the Young Academy Leiden have joined forces to develop a group escape game that puts various scientific disciplines in the spotlights. Join and try to solve brain teasers and challenging puzzles. The eight puzzles are all about groundbreaking discovers of Leiden scientists and one by one bring you closer to the denouement, a key moment in the history of the university. This interactive escape room experience is for anyone who would like to learn about Leiden University and her greatest scientists in a playful manner.
Night of Discoveries & YAL 2019
The Young Academy Leiden contributed to the Night of Discoveries 2019, which took place on September 21st. At our stand, visitors could test their knowledge and attitudes in the domain of the three themes of our Next444 project: Data & Technology, Sustainability, and Equality, Fairness & Justice.
To create awareness regarding sustainability, we allowed visitors to calculate their ecological footprint. Visitors could also test how gender (un)biased they are via an implicit bias test. Another game asked visitors to distinguish real faces from AI-generated faces.
