100 Notable alumni of Leiden University

Paul Bernard Cliteur is a Dutch professor emeritus of jurisprudence at Leiden University, as well as a politician, philosopher, writer, publicist and columnist. He is known for his conservative perspective, his atheism, his republicanism, and his dislike of Islam. He is a member of De Vrije Gedachte. Since 2015, Cliteur has been a member of the Dutch political party Forum...

Gerard van Swieten was a Dutch physician who from 1745 was the personal physician of the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and transformed the Austrian health service and medical university education. He was the father of Gottfried van Swieten, patron of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Sander Dekker is a Dutch politician who served as Minister for Legal Protection in the Third Rutte cabinet from 2017 to 2022. A member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), he previously served as State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science under the Second Rutte cabinet from 2012 to 2017.

Jan Andrzej Morsztyn was a Polish poet, member of the landed nobility, and official in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was starosta of Zawichost, Tymbark and Kowal. He was also pantler of Sandomierz (1647–58), Royal Secretary (from 1656), a secular referendary (1658–68), and Deputy Crown Treasurer from 1668. Apart from his career at the Polish court, Morsztyn is famous as a...

Count Nikolai or Nikolay Petrovich Rumyantsev, born in Saint Petersburg, was Russia's Foreign Minister and Chancellor of the Russian Empire in the run-up to Napoleon's invasion of Russia (1808–12). He was the son of Field Marshal Pyotr Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky from the Rumyantsev comital family.

Maxime Jacques Marcel Verhagen is a retired Dutch politician and historian. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), he served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2010 to 2012 under Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Ian Buruma is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States. In 2017, he became editor of The New York Review of Books, but left the position in September 2018.

Sean Simon Andrew Fraser is a Canadian lawyer and politician who is the minister of justice and Attorney General of Canada. A member of the Liberal Party, Fraser has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Central Nova since 2015. He joined Cabinet in 2021 as the minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, and was the minister of housing,...

Ronald Runaldo Venetiaan was a Surinamese politician who served as President of Suriname between 1991 and 1996, and between 2000 and 2010.

Ali Sastroamidjojo was an Indonesian politician and diplomat. He served in various political and diplomatic roles during the presidency of Sukarno, most notably as a cabinet minister, prime minister, chairman of the Indonesian National Party (PNI), and permanent representative to the United Nations. Ali was born in Grabag, Purworejo, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), to an aristocratic family from Magelang...

Johannes Cornelis "Hans" van Baalen was a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) who served as a Member of the European Parliament and Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the European Parliament from 2009 until 2019. He also was President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party from...

David Cohen was a Dutch classicist and papyrologist and one of the two chairs of the Jewish Council of Amsterdam [nl; de; he] (Joodse Raad, or Judenrat, of Amsterdam) during the occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. He was Professor of Ancient History at the University of Amsterdam and a prominent Zionist leader.

Nicolaas Bloembergen was a Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate, recognized for his work in developing driving principles behind nonlinear optics for laser spectroscopy. During his career, he was a professor at Harvard University and later at the University of Arizona and at Leiden University in 1973 (as Lorentz Professor).

Rik van de Westelaken is a Dutch television presenter. He is known for presenting television programs which include the NOS Journaal, Peking Express and Wie is de Mol?. Other programs include the travel show Rik over de grens and the quiz show 5 Golden Rings.

Alexander Andries Maramis, more commonly known simply as A. A. Maramis, was an Indonesian politician and National Hero of Indonesia, who was involved in the struggle for independence. He was a member of the Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence (BPUPKI), the organization which drafted the Constitution of Indonesia. In the early stages of the Indonesian government, following the...

Christiaan Rudolf de Wet was a Boer general, rebel leader and politician.

Gert Jan Maarten "Gert-Jan" Segers is a Dutch politician who was Leader of the Christian Union between 2015 and 2023. He has been a member of the House of Representatives between 2012 and 2023 and was parliamentary leader between 2015 and 2023.

Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse was Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (as Louis X) and later the first Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.

Maarten 't Hart is a Dutch writer. Trained as a biologist in zoology and ethology at the Leiden University, he taught that subject before becoming a full-time writer in the 1980s, having made his debut as a novelist in 1971 under the name Martin Hart with Stenen voor een ransuil ("Stones for a Long-Eared Owl").

Herman Boerhaave was a Dutch chemist, botanist, Christian humanist, and physician. He is sometimes regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital along with Venetian physician Santorio Santorio (1561–1636). Boerhaave introduced the quantitative approach into medicine, along with his pupil Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777). He was the first to isolate the chemical urea from urine....

Joseph Marie Antoine Hubert Luns was a Dutch politician, diplomat and jurist who served as the fifth Secretary General of NATO from 1971 to 1984, being the longest-serving officeholder since the office was established in 1952. Prior to this, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, starting in 1956. Luns was a member of the now-defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP), later...

Cornelis Gerrit "Kees" van der Staaij is a Dutch politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1998 to 2023 and Leader of the Reformed Political Party (Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, SGP) between 2010 and 2023. As a parliamentarian, he focused on matters of judiciary, home affairs, Kingdom relations, foreign policy, the European Union, development aid, the...

Pieter Zeeman was a Dutch experimental physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Hendrik Lorentz for their discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect.

Pieter van Vollenhoven Jr. is the husband of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands and a member, by marriage, of the Dutch royal house.

Robert Hans van Gulik was a Dutch orientalist, diplomat, musician (of the guqin), and writer, best known for the Judge Dee historical mysteries, the protagonist of which he borrowed from the 18th-century Chinese detective novel Dee Goong An.

Edith Ingeborg Schippers is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businesswoman who served as President of DSM Netherlands between 2019 and 2023.

Martinus Willem Beijerinck was a Dutch microbiologist and botanist who was one of the founders of virology and environmental microbiology. He is credited with the co-discovery of viruses (1898), which he called "contagium vivum fluidum".

Willebrord Snellius (born Willebrord Snel van Royen, also Willebrord van Roijen Snell (13 June 1580 – 30 October 1626), commonly known simply as Snellius and Snell, was a Dutch astronomer and mathematician.

Andreas Gryphius was a German poet and playwright. With his eloquent sonnets, which contains "The Suffering, Frailty of Life and the World", he is considered one of the most important Baroque poets of the Germanosphere. He was one of the first improvers of the German language and German poetry.

Freek Jacobus Vonk is a Dutch professor of biology who specializes in herpetology with a special interest in snake venom. He travels the world in search of the most spectacular and bizarre creatures. He has been bitten by a number of venomous snakes, almost lost his arm due to a Caribbean reef shark bite and has housed several parasites in...

Erica Georgina Terpstra is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).

Soepomo was an Indonesian politician and lawyer who served as the country's first Minister of Justice from August until November 1945 and again from December 1949 until 6 September 1950. Known as the father of Indonesia's constitution, he was posthumously declared an Indonesian National Hero by President Sukarno in 1965.

Alexander, Prince of Orange, was heir apparent to his father King William III of the Netherlands from 11 June 1879 until his death.

Marius Job Cohen is a retired Dutch politician and jurist who served as Mayor of Amsterdam from 2001 to 2010 and Leader of the Labour Party (PvdA) from 2010 to 2012.

Johan Rudolph Thorbecke was a Dutch liberal statesman, one of the most important Dutch politicians of the 19th century. Thorbecke is best known for heading the commission that drafted the revision of the Constitution of the Netherlands in 1848, amidst the liberal democratic revolutions of 1848. The new constitution transformed the country from an absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy,...

Jakob Gijsbert "Jaap" de Hoop Scheffer is a Dutch retired politician, jurist and diplomat who served as the eleventh Secretary General of NATO from January 2004 to August 2009. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), which he led from March 1997 to October 2001, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from July 2002 until December 2003 under...

Angelus Silesius, OFM, born Johann Scheffler, was a German Catholic priest, physician, mystic and religious poet. Born and raised a Lutheran, he began to read the works of medieval mystics while studying in the Netherlands and became acquainted with the works of the German mystic Jacob Böhme through Böhme's friend Abraham von Franckenberg. Silesius's display of his mystic beliefs caused...

Meinoud Marinus Rost van Tonningen was a member of the National Socialist Movement (NSB). During the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, he collaborated extensively with the German occupation forces. He was the husband of Florentine Rost van Tonningen.

Gerard Peter Kuiper was a Dutch astronomer, planetary scientist, selenographer, author and professor. The Kuiper belt is named after him.

Bernard Mandeville, or Bernard de Mandeville, was an Anglo-Dutch philosopher, political economist, satirist, writer and physician. Born in Rotterdam, he lived most of his life in England and used English for most of his published works. He became famous for The Fable of the Bees.

Abraham Kuyper was the prime minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist pastor and a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which upon its foundation became the second largest Reformed denomination in the country behind the state-supported Dutch Reformed Church.

Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje was a Dutch scholar of Oriental cultures and languages and advisor on native affairs to the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies.

Sutan Sjahrir was an Indonesian statesman and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of Indonesia from 1945 until 1947. He played a key role during the Indonesian National Revolution and was active in the nationalist movement during the 1930s. Sjahrir is remembered as an idealist and intellectual.

Frederik "Frits" Bolkestein was a Dutch politician and energy executive who served as Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) from 1990 to 1998 and European Commissioner for Internal Market from 1999 until 2004 under Romano Prodi.

Ronald Hans Anton Plasterk is a Dutch retired politician of the Labour Party (PvdA). He has a PhD degree in biology, specialising in molecular genetics. He is founder and CEO of Frame Cancer Therapeutics. He was appointed professor at the University of Amsterdam in September 2018.

John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British Tory statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He became the first Tory to hold the position and was arguably the last important royal favourite in British politics. He was the first prime...

Hugo Marie de Vries was a Dutch botanist and one of the first geneticists. He is known chiefly for suggesting the concept of genes, rediscovering the laws of heredity in the 1890s while apparently unaware of Gregor Mendel's work, for introducing the term "mutation", and for developing a mutation theory of evolution.

John Wilkes FRS was an English radical, journalist, politician, magistrate, essayist, and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of his voters – rather than the House of Commons – to determine their representatives. In 1768, angry protests of his supporters were suppressed in the Massacre...

Johannes Diderik van der Waals was a Dutch theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1910 "for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids". Van der Waals started his career as a schoolteacher. He became the first physics professor of the University of Amsterdam when its status was upgraded to Municipal University in...

Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen FRS was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns in animals. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, the study of animal behavior.

Victoria Koblenko is a Dutch actress, presenter and columnist of Ukrainian descent.

Jacobus Arminius was a Dutch Reformed minister and theologian during the Protestant Reformation period whose views became the basis of Arminianism and the Dutch Remonstrant movement. He served from 1603 as professor in theology at the University of Leiden and wrote many books and treatises on theology.

Alexander Pechtold is a Dutch politician and art historian. He is a member of Democrats 66.

Stefanie Joosten is a Dutch actress, singer and former model. She first gained widespread public attention when Japanese developer Konami revealed she would be providing the motion capture, voice, and likeness for the character Quiet in the 2015 video game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Willem Einthoven was a Dutch medical doctor and physiologist. He invented the first practical electrocardiograph (ECG or EKG) in 1895 and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1924 for it ("for the discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram").

James Hutton FRSE was a Scottish geologist, agriculturalist, chemical manufacturer, naturalist and physician. Often referred to as the "Father of Modern Geology," he played a key role in establishing geology as a modern science.

Charles Adams was the second son of the second President of the United States, John Adams, and his wife, Abigail Adams (née Smith). He was also the younger brother of the sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams.

Achmad Soebardjo Djojoadisoerjo was an Indonesian diplomat, lawyer, and statesman. He served as the first foreign minister of Indonesia in 1945 shortly after the proclamation of Indonesian independence, and again in 1951–1952 within the Soekiman Cabinet.

Johannes Hevelius was a councillor and chairman of the city council of the Old Town, Gdańsk (in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). As an astronomer, he gained a reputation as "the founder of lunar topography", and described ten new constellations, seven of which are still used by astronomers.

Paul Thiry, Baron d'Holbach, known as d'Holbach, was a Franco-German philosopher, encyclopedist and writer, who was a prominent figure in the French Enlightenment. He was born in Edesheim, near Landau in the Rhenish Palatinate, but lived and worked mainly in Paris, where he kept a salon. He helped in the dissemination of "Protestant and especially German thought", particularly in the...

Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff Jr. was a Dutch physical chemist. A highly influential theoretical chemist, in 1901 Van 't Hoff won the first the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "[for his] discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions". His pioneering work helped found the modern theory of chemical affinity, chemical equilibrium, chemical kinetics, and chemical...

Rutger Christiaan Bregman is a Dutch historian and author.

Johan Huizinga was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern cultural history.

Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands is the third and youngest son of the former Dutch queen, Beatrix, and her husband, Claus von Amsberg, and is the younger brother of the reigning Dutch king, Willem-Alexander. He is a member of the Dutch Royal House and currently fourth in the line of succession to the Dutch throne behind his nieces.

Princess Margriet of the Netherlands is the third daughter of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard. As an aunt of the reigning monarch, King Willem-Alexander, she is a member of the Dutch Royal House and currently eighth and last in the line of succession to the throne.

Eva Jinek is a Dutch-American journalist and television presenter.

Wopke Bastiaan Hoekstra is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) who serves as European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth in the second von der Leyen commission.

Hugo Grotius, also known as Hugo de Groot ( Dutch: [ˈɦyɣoː də ˈɣroːt]) or Huig de Groot ( Dutch: [ˈɦœyɣ də ˈɣroːt]), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, statesman, poet and playwright. A teenage prodigy, he was born in Delft and studied at Leiden University. He was imprisoned in Loevestein Castle for his involvement in the controversies over...

Edsger Wybe Dijkstra was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, mathematician, and science essayist.

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz was a Dutch theoretical physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for their discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect. He derived the Lorentz transformation of the special theory of relativity, as well as the Lorentz force, which describes the force acting on a charged particle in an electromagnetic field. He...

Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, often abbreviated as HB IX, was an Indonesian politician and Javanese royal who was the second vice president of Indonesia, the ninth sultan of Yogyakarta, and the first governor of the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Hamengkubuwono IX was also the chairman of the first National Scout Movement Quarter and was known as the Father of the...

Maurice of Orange was stadtholder of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic—except Friesland—from 1585 until his death. Prior to inheriting the title Prince of Orange from his elder half-brother, Philip William, in 1618, he was known as Maurice of Nassau.

Henry Fielding was an English writer and judge known for the use of humour and satire in his works. His famous novels include Shamela (1741), Joseph Andrews (1742), The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749) and Amelia (1751). Along with Samuel Richardson, Fielding is seen as the founder of the traditional English novel. As well as being a novelist,...

Mark Rutte is a Dutch politician who has served as the 14th secretary general of NATO since October 2024. He previously served as prime minister of the Netherlands from 2010 to 2024 and leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) from 2006 to 2023. Serving a total of almost 14 years, Rutte is the longest-serving prime minister...

Beatrix is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until her abdication in 2013.

Juliana was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980.

Armin Jozef Jacobus Daniël van Buuren OON is a Dutch DJ, musician and record producer. Since 2001, he has hosted A State of Trance (ASOT), a weekly radio show, which is broadcast to nearly 40 million listeners in 84 countries on over 100 FM radio stations. According to the website DJs and Festivals, "the radio show propelled him to stardom...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch and American writer, activist, conservative thinker and former politician. A critic of Islam, she advocates for the rights and self-determination of Muslim women and opposes forced marriage, honour killing, child marriage, and female genital mutilation. At the age of five, Hirsi Ali underwent female genital mutilation organized by her grandmother. Her family moved...

Thierry Henri Philippe Baudet is a Dutch far-right politician, author, and self-declared conspiracy theorist. He is the founder and leader of Forum for Democracy (FvD), for which he was a member of the House of Representatives between 2017 and 2026, with the exception of his paternity leave.

René Descartes was a French philosopher, scientist, logician, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science during Renaissance era. Mathematics was paramount to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry.

William III and II, also known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 1672, and King of England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702. He ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland with his wife, Queen Mary II, and their...

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, mononymously known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of Western art. It is estimated that Rembrandt's surviving works amount to about three hundred paintings, three hundred etchings, and several hundred drawings.

Baruch Spinoza (24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born and lived in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenment, Spinoza significantly influenced modern biblical criticism, 17th-century rationalism, and Dutch intellectual culture, establishing himself as one of the most...

Willem-Alexander is the current King of the Netherlands, having reigned since 30 April 2013.

John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825; minister to Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia; and senator for Massachusetts. After his presidency, Adams uniquely returned to Congress as a member of the lower house, where he died...

Herman Diederik Tjeenk Willink is a retired Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and jurist. He was granted the honorary title of Minister of State on 21 December 2012.

Jan Tinbergen was a Dutch economist who was awarded the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969, which he shared with Ragnar Frisch for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential economists of the 20th century and one of the founding fathers...

Paul Verhoeven is a Dutch filmmaker, who has worked variously in the Netherlands, the United States, and in France. He is known for directing genre films with strong satirical elements, often featuring graphic violence and sexual content. Many of his films are considered provocative, and were controversial when released.

Willem Jacobus "Wim" Eijk is a Dutch prelate of the Catholic Church, a cardinal since 2012. He has been the Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht since 2007. He was Bishop of Groningen-Leeuwarden from 1999 to 2007. Before his clerical career he worked as a medical doctor; as a priest he made medical ethics the focus of his academic studies. He has...

Prince Janusz Radziwiłł, also known as Janusz the Second or Janusz the Younger was a noble and magnate in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Throughout his life he occupied a number of posts in the state administration, including that of Court Chamberlain of Lithuania (from 1633), Field Hetman of Lithuania (from 1646) and Grand Hetman of Lithuania (from 1654). He was also...

Peter Simon Pallas FRS FRSE was a Prussian zoologist, botanist, ethnographer, explorer, geographer, geologist, natural historian, and taxonomist. He studied natural sciences at various universities in early modern Germany and worked primarily in the Russian Empire between 1767 and 1810.

Enrico Fermi was an Italian and naturalized American physicist, renowned for being the creator of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, and a member of the Manhattan Project. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb". He was one of very few physicists to excel in both theoretical...

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was a Dutch experimental physicist who became the first to liquefy helium, cooling it to near 1.5 kelvin (K). For this work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913.

Albrecht von Haller was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist, encyclopedist, bibliographer and poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave and Jacob Winslow, he is sometimes referred to as "the father of modern physiology."

Johan de Witt was a Dutch statesman and mathematician who was a major political figure during the First Stadtholderless Period, when flourishing global trade in a period of rapid European colonial expansion made the Dutch a leading trading and seafaring power in Europe, commonly referred to as the Dutch Golden Age. De Witt was elected Grand Pensionary of Holland, and...

Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, FRS was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who is regarded as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution. In physics, Huygens made seminal contributions to optics and mechanics, while as an astronomer he studied the rings of Saturn and discovered its largest moon, Titan. As an engineer and inventor, he improved the...

Sir Thomas Browne was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science, medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a deep curiosity towards the natural world, influenced by the Scientific Revolution of Baconian enquiry and are permeated by references to Classical and Biblical sources as well as the idiosyncrasies...

Jan Ingenhousz FRS was a Dutch-British physiologist, biologist and chemist.

Marcel van Hattem is a Brazilian political scientist, journalist, international relations consultant and politician. He currently serves in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies and is known for his conservative views.