This aim has mainly be realized by organizing a monthly colloquium, the Van Leeuwenhoek Lectures on BioScience. All invited speakers are highly qualified and at the forefront of their field, which in most cases is interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary.

The Committee of the BSI comprises a chairman and a secretary. It has a number of contacts in several institutes belonging to the Faculty. With their help, the Committee makes up a standing list of potential speakers both from the Netherlands and abroad; the invitations are based on their advice.

The speakers generally stay in the Netherlands for several days so that there is the opportunity to brainstorm with members of the various research groups within the Faculty, and sometimes at other universities and research institutes. The BSI has won international recognition as well as respect within the Faculty, and has a loyal group attending the lectures regularly.

The BSI feels that it is now (2010) the moment to reach colleagues outside the Science Faculty, and hopes by gaining the interest of scientists of the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSW), the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), the Technical University of Delft (TNW, TUD), and the Bio Science Park in Leiden, to become a BioScience Community.

The lectures are usually held on the last Thursday of the month, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon; when public holidays dictate, another Thursday is chosen.
Location: Gorlaeus Laboratories, Cell Observatory.

For up-to-date information, visit the BSI website at http://bsi.science.leidenuniv.nl where you can also find a list of the lectures that have been held to date.

Contact: m.libbenga@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Upcoming lecture

Thursday May 27th 2010 at 16.00 hrs.

Gorlaeus Laboratories, Cell Observatory

Designing Biological Systems: Memory, Metabolism ans Mutualism

Speaker: Pamela Silver (Harvard University, Cambridge, USA)