In August 2014, Firas Jumaah, an Iraqi doctoral student at Lund University in Sweden, traveled to Iraq after Islamic State violence threatened his wife and two children, who were visiting for a family wedding. Jumaah and his family are Yazidis, an ethno-religious minority targeted by ISIS during its offensive in northern Iraq. The attack on Sinjar brought massacres and enslavement, and the family became trapped as the militants advanced and escape routes closed.

Facing a desperate situation, Jumaah texted his supervisor, analytical chemistry professor Charlotta Turner, asking her to remove him from the doctoral program if he had not returned within a week. Turner called him and learned that his family was preparing to hide. She urged him not to give up and contacted Lund University’s security chief, Per Gustafson, to seek help.

After several days of work, Gustafson arranged for a security company to rescue the family. Armed personnel traveled into the area in two vehicles and took Jumaah, his wife and their two young children to Erbil Airport. Jumaah later said he felt privileged to be rescued but guilty about leaving his mother and sisters behind. The rest of his family survived the ISIS occupation.

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