In 2014, Lund University chemistry professor Charlotta Turner helped rescue her doctoral student Firas Jumaah and his family from an ISIS offensive in northern Iraq.

Jumaah, a member of the Yazidi minority targeted by ISIS, had returned to Iraq after his wife and two children traveled there for a family wedding. Fearing for their safety as the militants advanced, he flew from Sweden to join them and hoped to bring them home. Borders had largely closed amid an exodus of refugees, however, and the family could not reach the airport. They eventually hid in a disused factory as gunfire echoed nearby.

With little hope of escape, Jumaah texted Turner, asking her to remove him from the doctoral program if he did not return within a week. Turner called him, learned how dire the situation had become and sought help from the university’s security chief, Per Gustafson.

Gustafson hired a security company to arrange an extraction. Within days, armed personnel arrived in two vehicles and transported Jumaah, his wife and their two children to Erbil Airport. Jumaah was relieved but felt guilty about leaving his mother and sisters behind; they ultimately survived the ISIS occupation.

Back in Sweden, Jumaah completed his PhD and went on to work for a pharmaceutical company in Malmö. His family has nearly finished repaying the university for the rescue, which Gustafson described as a unique operation for a university.