The shots felt round the world — by Brenda McDonald, MSU COmmunications Services Millions of lives around the world have been saved by Maurice Hilleman, '41 Micro, '66 HonDoc, who pioneered the discovery and development of more than three dozen vaccines. A renowned basic research scientist and vaccine researcher, Hilleman is credited with the development of more life saving vaccines than any other scientist. He recently received the Prince Mahidol Award from the King of Thailand for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of public health. At 83 Hilleman shows no signs of slowing down, putting in long days and keeping a full domestic and international travel schedule. "I believe in working every day," Hilleman said. He credits his tremendous drive to his heritage and farm upbringing. "You had to work long hours to survive on a farm in Montana during the Depression. You were expected to put in long hours." A native of Miles City, he arrived at MSC on a scholarship. His phenomenal career as a research scientist got its start with a simple coin toss. Heads he would major in microbiology and tails it would be engineering physics. It ended up as a dual major in microbiology and chemistry. His work ethic and pursuit of efficiency carried over to his years at MSC where he would run a semester's worth of organic chemistry lab experiments simultaneously in order to be finished by mid-term. "I'd stay at school until 10 or 11 at night," he said. "If you have an experiment going, you had to be there. The greatest attribute of MSU was that it was a no nonsense school, focusing on science, engineering and agriculture." As a graduate student at the prestigious University of Chicago, his advisor couldn't believe the quality and diversity in science education he had received from a small school. It enabled him to skip the first two years of graduate course work and to complete his degree in three years. To gain practical experience in his field, Hilleman chose to work in industry rather than becoming a researcher with a university. When he went into infectious disease research there wasn't even a textbook for virology. His first major achievement, while at E.R. Squibb & Sons, was the development of a vaccine to protect American troops in the Pacific from Japanese encephalitis. At the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington D.C., he discovered progressive antigenic change in influenza viruses and detected and predicted the Pandemic of influenza in 1957 which allowed him to alert the world community of the pending pandemic. This also provided time to prepare 40 million doses of vaccine. He co-discovered the adenoviruses which cause severe respiratory disease in children and military populations and developed a vaccine against the illness. Hilleman spent most of his career at Merck, which he joined in 1957 when he was recruited to create and head a new Department of Virus and Cell Biology at West Point, Penn. This department was fueled by basic scientific investigations with centralized multidisciplinary direction. It remains a unique model for industrial research. "The President of Merck wanted to establish a medical virology laboratory that would be second to none," he said. "The system at Merck required me to take a discovery all the way from the basics to manufacturing. That was a huge and complex undertaking. Central authority allows you to make decisions quickly and efficiently." His 24/7 commitment to his work was never truer then in 1963 when he developed the mumps vaccine after his five-year-old daughter developed the disease. "At 1 a.m. she said 'my throat hurts.' I took swabs from her throat and rushed them to the laboratory." The preserved specimens were used to develop the mumps vaccine. Hilleman said the key to his success was maintaining a working relationship with government, industry and academia. He and his colleagues pioneered development of numerous vaccines including those against measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), chicken pox, hepatitis A and B, bacterial meningitis, bacterial pneumonia and others. He also led the development of a purified poliomyelitis vaccine, licensed in 1960. In 1971 Hilleman's combined MMR vaccine was licensed, allowing a single injection followed by a booster dose that protects children against measles, mumps and rubella. In addition to his achievements in human health, Hilleman and his colleagues at Merck developed a vaccine for Mareks Disease, a fatal viral cancer of chickens. The vaccine revolutionized the economics of the poultry industry. This was the first licensed vaccine against cancer and was followed in 1981 by his vaccine against hepatitis B, the first licensed vaccine to prevent human cancer. After 27 years with Merck, Hilleman was faced with the prospect of retirement. Instead of retiring, Hilleman took on his current roll as director of the newly established Merck Institute for Vaccinology. One important activity has been to read the literature that exists on diverse subjects, and then to take an exhaustive look, analyze, summarize and publish comprehensive reviews. He has been recognized worldwide for his leadership in science, medicine and health. His many awards include the National Medal of Science, presented by President Reagan, and the Lasker Award in Medical Research. He is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, its Institute of Medicine, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Hilleman has two daughters, Jeryl Lynn and Kirsten who live in San Francisco and New York. He and his wife Lorraine live in Philadelphia. If you ask Hilleman about the key to his long life, he says "No time for vices I guess!"