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

Jumaah, a member of the Yazidi religious minority, had returned to Iraq from Sweden after learning that his wife and two young children were in danger. They had traveled there for a family wedding, while he had initially stayed behind to finish laboratory work. ISIS fighters had attacked nearby communities, killing men and enslaving women, and the family became trapped as borders closed and the violence spread.

While hiding with his family, Jumaah sent Turner a text asking her to remove him from the doctoral program if he did not return within a week. When she called, she realized how desperate their situation was and told him not to give up. She contacted the university’s security chief, Per Gustafson, who arranged for a security company to carry out a rescue.

Within days, armed personnel in two vehicles collected Jumaah, his wife and their children and took them to Erbil Airport. Jumaah later described feeling privileged to escape, but also troubled by leaving his mother and sisters behind. They 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.