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.[1] The letter was published simultaneously in English, Russian and Ukrainian. More than 200 Nobel laureates have signed the open letter.

Overview

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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.[2] 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.[3]

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.[4]

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.[5][6] 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.[1]

List of signatories

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This is a list of signatories to the open letter, as of 1 April 2022.[7]

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
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For more on this topic, see also:

References

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  1. ^ a b Hovis, Kathy (3 March 2022). "Nobel laureates show support for Ukraine". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  2. ^ "ロシアの武力侵攻は「不当、残虐で無益」とノーベル賞受賞者 日本関係の9人含む約160人が抗議声明". Science Portal - 科学技術の最新情報サイト「サイエンスポータル」.
  3. ^ "ノーベル賞受賞者ら、ロシア非難 | 新潟日報デジタルプラス". Archived from the original on 2022-03-09. Retrieved 2022-04-01.
  4. ^ "Nobel Campaigns - Nobel Laureate Support for Ukraine". www.nlcampaigns.org.
  5. ^ The rescue of Roald Hoffmann Archived October 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine at Yad Vashem website
  6. ^ Roald Hoffmann, interviewed by David J. Caruso in Cornell University on October 16, 2014. Oral History Transcript 0925. Philadelphia, PA: Science History Institute. 2020.
  7. ^ "An open letter in support of Ukraine". The Economist. March 3, 2022.