# 2022 open letter from Nobel laureates in support of Ukraine

On 1 March 2022, an open letter from a group of Nobel Prize laureates was published in support of Ukraine, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The letter was published simultaneously in English, Russian and Ukrainian. More than 200 Nobel laureates have signed the open letter.

## Overview

At the beginning of the letter, the signing Nobel laureates expressed their support for the independence of the Ukrainian people and freedom of the Ukrainian state in the face of the Russian invasion of the country. The open letter was published online on 2 March, after being circulated to Nobel laureates the previous day. In the open letter, there is a call for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, along with criticism of the unjustified atrocities of the Russian invasion and that it violated the Charter of the United Nations. The letter also includes the view that it distinguishes between the actions and views of President of Russia Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion, and the Russian general public; the letter states that it does not believe that the Russian people are involved in, or responsible for, the invasion.
In addition to the open letter itself, several individual statements from prominent figures were posted on the same website that hosted the open letter. These include personal statements from former U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, and from the 14th Dalai Lama.
The letter was drafted by Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann. Hoffmann’s family, who are Jewish, were hid by Ukrainians from the Nazis for eighteen months, from January 1943 to June 1944. He also spent a year in Russia during grad school. He sent his draft to fellow Nobel laureate Richard J. Roberts. Roberts maintains a website, nlcampaigns.org, where issues laureates care about are publicized. Through the website, he shared the letter and got signatures.

## List of signatories

This is a list of signatories to the open letter, as of 1 April 2022.
| Name | Nationality | Year of award | Area |
| Peter Agre | United States | 2003 | Chemistry |
| James P. Allison | United States | 2018 | Medicine |
| Harvey J. Alter | United States | 2020 | Medicine |
| Hiroshi Amano | Japan | 2014 | Physics |
| Werner Arber | Switzerland | 1978 | Medicine |
| Óscar Arias | Costa Rica | 1987 | Peace |
| Frances Arnold | United States | 2018 | Chemistry |
| Richard Axel | United States | 2004 | Medicine |
| David Baltimore | United States | 1975 | Medicine |
| Barry Barish | United States | 2017 | Physics |
| Georg Bednorz | Germany | 1987 | Physics |
| Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo | East Timor | 1996 | Peace |
| Paul Berg | United States | 1980 | Chemistry |
| Bruce Beutler | United States | 2011 | Medicine |
| Elizabeth Blackburn | Australia / United States | 2009 | Medicine |
| Michael Stuart Brown | United States | 1985 | Medicine |
| Linda B. Buck | United States | 2004 | Medicine |
| William C. Campbell | Ireland / United States | 2015 | Medicine |
| Mario Capecchi | Italy / United States | 2007 | Medicine |
| Jimmy Carter | United States | 2002 | Peace |
| Thomas Cech | United States | 1989 | Chemistry |
| Martin Chalfie | United States | 2008 | Chemistry |
| Emmanuelle Charpentier | France | 2020 | Chemistry |
| Steven Chu | United States | 1997 | Physics |
| Aaron Ciechanover | Israel | 2004 | Chemistry |
| J. M. Coetzee | South Africa / Australia | 2003 | Literature |
| Elias James Corey | United States | 1990 | Chemistry |
| Robert Curl | United States | 1996 | Chemistry |
| Angus Deaton | United Kingdom | 2015 | Economics |
| Johann Deisenhofer | Germany | 1988 | Chemistry |
| Jennifer Doudna | United States | 2020 | Chemistry |
| Jacques Dubochet | Switzerland | 2017 | Chemistry |
| Shirin Ebadi | Iran | 2003 | Peace |
| Robert F. Engle | United States | 2003 | Economics |
| Gerhard Ertl | Germany | 2007 | Chemistry |
| Eugene Fama | United States | 2013 | Economics |
| Andrew Fire | United States | 2006 | Medicine |
| Joachim Frank | Germany / United States | 2017 | Chemistry |
| Jerome Isaac Friedman | United States | 1990 | Physics |
| Leymah Gbowee | Liberia | 2011 | Peace |
| Andre Geim | United Kingdom / Netherlands | 2010 | Physics |
| Reinhard Genzel | Germany | 2020 | Physics |
| Andrea M. Ghez | United States | 2020 | Physics |
| Sheldon Glashow | United States | 1979 | Physics |
| Joseph L. Goldstein | United States | 1985 | Medicine |
| Carol W. Greider | United States | 2009 | Medicine |
| David Gross | United States | 2004 | Physics |
| Duncan Haldane | United Kingdom / Slovenia | 2016 | Physics |
| Jeffrey C. Hall | United States | 2017 | Medicine |
| John L. Hall | United States | 2005 | Physics |
| Serge Haroche | France / Morocco | 2012 | Physics |
| Oliver Hart | United Kingdom / United States | 2016 | Economics |
| Leland H. Hartwell | United States | 2001 | Medicine |
| Klaus Hasselmann | Germany | 2021 | Physics |
| Harald zur Hausen | Germany | 2008 | Medicine |
| Richard Henderson | United Kingdom | 2017 | Chemistry |
| Dudley R. Herschbach | United States | 1986 | Chemistry |
| Avram Hershko | Hungary / Israel | 2004 | Chemistry |
| Roald Hoffmann | Poland / United States | 1981 | Chemistry |
| Jules A. Hoffmann | Luxembourg / France | 2011 | Medicine |
| Bengt Holmström | Finland | 2016 | Economics |
| Tasuku Honjo | Japan | 2018 | Medicine |
| Gerard 't Hooft | Netherlands | 1999 | Physics |
| H. Robert Horvitz | United States | 2002 | Medicine |
| Michael Houghton | United Kingdom | 2020 | Medicine |
| Robert Huber | Germany | 1988 | Chemistry |
| Tim Hunt | United Kingdom | 2001 | Medicine |
| Louis Ignarro | United States | 1998 | Medicine |
| Kazuo Ishiguro | United Kingdom / Japan | 2017 | Literature |
| Elfriede Jelinek | Austria | 2004 | Literature |
| David Julius | United States | 2021 | Medicine |
| William Kaelin Jr. | United States | 2019 | Medicine |
| Takaaki Kajita | Japan | 2015 | Physics |
| Eric Kandel | Austria / United States | 2000 | Medicine |
| Tawakkol Karman | Yemen / Turkey | 2011 | Peace |
| Wolfgang Ketterle | Germany / United States | 2001 | Physics |
| Klaus von Klitzing | Germany | 1985 | Physics |
| Brian Kobilka | United States | 2012 | Chemistry |
| Roger D. Kornberg | United States | 2006 | Chemistry |
| J. Michael Kosterlitz | United Kingdom / United States | 2016 | Physics |
| Finn E. Kydland | Norway | 2004 | Economics |
| The 14th Dalai Lama | Tibet (in exile) / India | 1989 | Peace |
| Yuan T. Lee | Taiwan | 1986 | Chemistry |
| Robert Lefkowitz | United States | 2012 | Chemistry |
| Anthony James Leggett | United Kingdom / United States | 2003 | Physics |
| Jean-Marie Lehn | France | 1987 | Chemistry |
| Michael Levitt | United Kingdom / South Africa | 2013 | Chemistry |
| Tomas Lindahl | United Kingdom / Sweden | 2015 | Chemistry |
| Benjamin List | Germany | 2021 | Chemistry |
| Roderick MacKinnon | United States | 2003 | Chemistry |
| David MacMillan | United Kingdom / United States | 2021 | Chemistry |
| Barry Marshall | Australia | 2005 | Medicine |
| Eric Maskin | United States | 2007 | Economics |
| John C. Mather | United States | 2006 | Physics |
| Michel Mayor | Switzerland | 2019 | Physics |
| Arthur B. McDonald | Canada | 2015 | Physics |
| Daniel McFadden | United States | 2000 | Economics |
| Craig Mello | United States | 2006 | Medicine |
| Robert C. Merton | United States | 1997 | Economics |
| Hartmut Michel | Germany | 1988 | Chemistry |
| Paul Milgrom | United States | 2020 | Economics |
| Paul L. Modrich | United States | 2015 | Chemistry |
| William E. Moerner | United States | 2014 | Chemistry |
| Edvard Moser | Norway | 2014 | Medicine |
| May-Britt Moser | Norway | 2014 | Medicine |
| Gérard Mourou | France | 2018 | Physics |
| Herta Müller | Romania / Germany | 2009 | Literature |
| Ferid Murad | United States | 1998 | Medicine |
| Roger Myerson | United States | 2007 | Economics |
| Erwin Neher | Germany | 1991 | Medicine |
| Ryoji Noyori | Japan | 2001 | Chemistry |
| Paul Nurse | United Kingdom | 2001 | Medicine |
| Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard | Germany | 1995 | Medicine |
| Barack Obama | United States | 2009 | Peace |
| John O'Keefe | United Kingdom / United States | 2014 | Medicine |
| Yoshinori Ohsumi | Japan | 2016 | Medicine |
| Orhan Pamuk | Turkey | 2006 | Literature |
| Ardem Patapoutian | Lebanon / United States | 2021 | Medicine |
| Jim Peebles | Canada / United States | 2019 | Physics |
| Edmund Phelps | United States | 2006 | Economics |
| William Daniel Phillips | United States | 1997 | Physics |
| Hugh David Politzer | United States | 2004 | Physics |
| Stanley B. Prusiner | United States | 1997 | Medicine |
| Venkatraman Ramakrishnan | United Kingdom / India | 2009 | Chemistry |
| Peter J. Ratcliffe | United Kingdom | 2019 | Medicine |
| Maria Ressa | Philippines / United States | 2021 | Peace |
| Charles M. Rice | United States | 2020 | Medicine |
| Adam Riess | United States | 2011 | Physics |
| Richard J. Roberts | United Kingdom | 1993 | Medicine |
| Michael Rosbash | United States | 2017 | Medicine |
| Alvin E. Roth | United States | 2012 | Economics |
| James Rothman | United States | 2013 | Medicine |
| Bert Sakmann | Germany | 1991 | Medicine |
| Juan Manuel Santos | Colombia | 2016 | Peace |
| Kailash Satyarthi | India | 2014 | Peace |
| Jean-Pierre Sauvage | France | 2016 | Chemistry |
| Randy Schekman | United States | 2013 | Medicine |
| Brian Schmidt | United States / Australia | 2011 | Physics |
| Gregg L. Semenza | United States | 2019 | Medicine |
| Phillip Allen Sharp | United States | 1993 | Medicine |
| Karl Barry Sharpless | United States | 2001 | Chemistry |
| Dan Shechtman | Israel | 2011 | Chemistry |
| Robert J. Shiller | United States | 2013 | Economics |
| Hideki Shirakawa | Japan | 2000 | Chemistry |
| Hamilton O. Smith | United States | 1978 | Medicine |
| Wole Soyinka | Nigeria | 1986 | Literature |
| Fraser Stoddart | United Kingdom / United States | 2016 | Chemistry |
| Horst Ludwig Störmer | Germany / United States | 1998 | Physics |
| Donna Strickland | Canada | 2018 | Physics |
| Jack W. Szostak | United Kingdom / Canada | 2009 | Medicine |
| Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. | United States | 1993 | Physics |
| Kip Thorne | United States | 2017 | Physics |
| Susumu Tonegawa | Japan | 1987 | Medicine |
| Daniel C. Tsui | China / United States | 1998 | Physics |
| Harold E. Varmus | United States | 1989 | Medicine |
| John E. Walker | United Kingdom | 1997 | Chemistry |
| Arieh Warshel | Israel / United States | 2013 | Chemistry |
| Rainer Weiss | Germany / United States | 2017 | Physics |
| M. Stanley Whittingham | United Kingdom / United States | 2019 | Chemistry |
| Eric F. Wieschaus | United States | 1995 | Medicine |
| Torsten Wiesel | Sweden | 1981 | Medicine |
| Frank Wilczek | United States | 2004 | Physics |
| Jody Williams | United States | 1997 | Peace |
| David J. Wineland | United States | 2012 | Physics |
| Kurt Wüthrich | Switzerland | 2002 | Chemistry |
| Shinya Yamanaka | Japan | 2012 | Medicine |
| Michael W. Young | United States | 2017 | Medicine |