A fascinating article in Aljazeera America highlights the efforts by the University of South Carolina to help Iraq’s higher education and scientific research sectors during the crises that have besieged that country. IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) has had the privilege of being associated with Dr. Jenny Pournelle, who for more than a decade has been a tireless champion of Iraqi professors and students. Dr. Pournelle was an expert presenter at a 2011 IIE higher education revitalization conference held in Iraq. 

The University of South Carolina is an important partner in the IIE-SRF efforts to assist threatened Iraqi academics. Two Iraqi physician scientists—funded with stipends from the program—have been welcomed as visiting scholars by USC’s School of Medicine. To date, the IIE-SRF’s Iraq Project has supported nearly 300 of Iraq’s most senior and most threatened scholars.