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

Jumaah, a member of the Yazidi religious minority targeted by ISIS, had returned to Iraq after fearing for the safety of his wife and two young children, who had traveled there for a family wedding. ISIS had attacked Sinjar and nearby areas, killing and enslaving Yazidis. As the fighters advanced and escape routes closed, Jumaah and his family hid in a disused bleach factory.

Believing he might not survive, Jumaah texted Turner and asked her to remove him from the doctoral program if he did not return to Sweden within a week. After speaking with him and learning how desperate the situation was, Turner contacted Lund University’s security chief, Per Gustafson. He arranged for a security company to send armed personnel to retrieve Jumaah, his wife and their children in two vehicles and take them to Erbil Airport.

The family reached Sweden safely. Jumaah said he felt privileged to be rescued but struggled with having left his mother and sisters behind. His relatives survived the ISIS occupation. He later completed his PhD and began working for a pharmaceutical company in Malmö. His family had nearly finished repaying the university for the rescue, which Gustafson described as a unique operation.