In 2014, Lund University chemistry doctoral student Firas Jumaah returned to his native Iraq to help his wife and two young children, who were visiting family when Islamic State fighters advanced through the north. Jumaah and his family are Yazidis, a religious minority targeted by the group, which massacred and enslaved thousands of Yazidis around Sinjar.

With borders largely closed and routes to the airport unsafe, Jumaah and his family went into hiding. He sent his supervisor, analytical chemistry professor Charlotta Turner, a message asking her to assume he would not finish his doctorate if he did not return within a week. When Turner called him, she learned how desperate their situation had become.

Turner sought help from Lund University’s then-security chief, Per Gustafson, who arranged for a security company to rescue them. Within days, armed personnel in two vehicles reached the family and took Jumaah, his wife and their children to Erbil Airport. Jumaah later said he felt privileged to be rescued but also distressed to leave his mother and sisters behind.

His remaining relatives survived the Islamic State 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.