Because I have received so many requests for letters of reference for candidates for hiring, promotion, or prizes, often in fields at some remove from my own area of expertise, that it is seriously interfering with my own research, not to mention what little remains of my free time, I am announcing a total moratorium on such letters for the calendar year 2022.

Exceptions will be made for my own students, past and present, broadly understood. There will be no other exceptions.

Looking beyond 2022, I will systematically refuse requests for letters of reference with less than one month advance notice. To this one-month period I reserve the right to add two weeks of vacation time between semesters or during the summer.

I am announcing this policy on my home page to make it clear that my refusal to write letters during 2022 should be taken, not as a reflection of my opinion of any particular candidate, but rather as a desperate reaction to a situation that is getting out of control.