What is the scientific atmosphere in Leiden like?
Well, here is one rather flattering perspective. My own perception of the atmosphere at the Instituut-Lorentz is that it is quite open and international. We typically have postdocs and graduate students from a dozen different nationalities. The scientific atmosphere in the theory group in Leiden is also influenced by the fact that all our faculty members have worked abroad for several years – it is our ambition to do physics on an internationally competitive basis while fostering an open and friendly environment and the fun of doing physics. Research groups in the Netherlands are often rather small and not very hierarchical, and most professors try to get their students involved as fast as possible in the active research on the frontline of physics. This certainly holds for my colleagues and myself at the Instituut-Lorentz: you don’t have to fear getting a “run-of-the-mill” type of problem here as a graduate student. Our attitude is that our very best graduate students, who have a real
