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SiG MT 98 to MSU. He subsequently aended the University of Chicago, where he obtained a Ph.D. in microbiology, before hiring on at E.R . Squibb and Sons, a pharmaceutical company. While there, he developed his first-ever vaccine against Japanese B encephalitis, which helped protect U.S. troops during the Pacific eater of World War II. Dr. Hilleman served at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center beginning in 1948. His research pulled back the curtain on the influenza virus through his discoveries on virus mutations and deadly pandemics. As a result, he was able to predict the next flu pandemic in 1957 and developed and rolled out a vaccine before the virus hit the U.S., saving hundreds of thousands of lives, according to medical experts. He was subsequently recruited by pharmaceutical company, Merck, in 1957 and relocated to Pennsylvania, where he met Lorraine while interviewing her for a collaborative study he was conducting. "We were married shortly thereaer," she laughed. An especially notable moment in Dr. Hilleman's life – both as a scientist and as a father – came in the middle of the night in 1963, when his then-five-year-old daughter, Jeryl Lynn, woke up sick. Dr. Hilleman talked about what happened during an interview with e Vaccine Makers project. "My daughter, Jeryl Lynn, came in one night and she says 'look dad," he said, reaching up to his own throat and recalling the moment he realized his own child's salivary glands were severely swelled. He knew she was likely suffering from the mumps virus. He said he told her to get back into bed and ran to the laboratory at about 1 a.m. to gather a specimen- collecting kit and brought it back to their home. He collected swabs from his daughter's throat and took them back to the lab to freeze them. "So now I had specimens out of Jeryl Lynn, my daughter," he told e Vaccine Makers. "We isolated the virus and went into aenuation." His younger daughter, Kirsten, ended up being one of the first children to receive the new mumps vaccine. She was approximately one year old at the time, Dr. Hilleman said. "A picture was taken of Jeryl convincing her sister that she ought to take the vaccine," he told e Vaccine Makers, referring to a photo of the crying toddler being consoled by her elder sister. "Here was a baby being protected by a virus from her sister, and this has been unique in the history of medicine, I think. It was a big human-interest story." With the help of his team, the pioneering microbiologist developed approximately 40 human and animal health vaccines over the course of his storied career – more than any other scientist has ever accomplished. Among them were vaccines to prevent Hepatitis A, measles, mumps, meningitis, pneumonia, chickenpox, and Haemophilus influenzae bacteria. He developed the Hepatitis B vaccine in 1981, which has been hailed as the first vaccine capable of preventing hepatoma, a liver cancer that can develop in humans due to complications of the Hepatitis B virus. Dr. Hilleman developed the first generation of the rubella vaccine and was able to create a combination vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella so children only had to endure a single injection instead of three. It was the first time vaccines for multiple viruses were successfully combined into a single dose. His discoveries have helped to extend human life expectancies while simultaneously boosting the economies of multiple countries, according to e New York Post. Even as a young boy, Maurice showed a strong aptitude for science. The writings of Charles Darwin were particularly interesting to the future scientist. After graduating high school, he landed a management job at JC Penny. He couldn't afford college but luckily was awarded a scholarship to Montana State College (now Montana State University). Photo courtesy of Lorraine Hilleman

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