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

Jumaah, a Yazidi from Iraq, had remained in Sweden to complete laboratory work while his wife and two children visited Iraq for a family wedding. When ISIS advanced and attacked communities near his family, he flew there to bring them back. By the time he arrived, however, borders were closing amid a mass flight of refugees, and he could no longer reach the airport.

As the danger worsened, Jumaah and his family hid in a disused factory. He sent Turner a message asking her to assume he would not finish his doctorate if he failed to return within a week. When she called, she heard how desperate the situation had become and resolved to help.

Turner contacted the university’s security chief, Per Gustafson, who arranged for a security company to mount a rescue. Within days, two vehicles carrying four armed guards reached the family and took Jumaah, his wife and their children to Erbil Airport. Jumaah was relieved but felt guilty about leaving his mother and sisters behind; they later 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 repaid the university for the rescue, which Gustafson described as a unique operation for a university.