Maurice Hilleman: Father of Modern Vaccines

Nguyen, Daniel
Oshan, Adam
Rozac, Dino
Senior Division
Group Website

Process Paper
Why we chose this topic:
When our group met for the first time, we encountered some difficulty in choosing a topic, so
we decided to use our last years project of genetics as a basis for what we wanted to do this year. As
a result, we had some knowledge that medical history was underappreciated and we decided to build
upon that. Adam looked into vaccinations and he learned about Maurice Hilleman and the vast
amount of people that knew so little about him, despite him being one of the most significant people
of the 20th century. He shared his find and we decided to follow through and do our project on
Hilleman.

How we conducted our research:

Our initial search began in our history textbook, but we didnt find much information on
Hilleman. We then went online, but there werent too many resources online, although the ones that
existed were very useful. For example, the History of Vaccines website provided us with a timeline of
Hillemans life and achievements; furthermore, there we found plenty of primary sources by way of
photographs and interviews with Hilleman. At this point, we still lacked a large amount of sources,
but soon we discovered that Paul Offit had written a book about Maurice Hilleman. We borrowed the
book from our local library (and later bought an online version) and it became a major source of
information for us. With this book to guide us, we compiled all our information and began to work on
the website.

How we created and developed our website:

We took a similar approach to the one we took when working together last yearwe chose a
single event to focus on and then divided the website into three groups: background history,
information on the event, and legacy or post events and significance; although, we did switch roles
this time. Each of us focused on our own sections, yet we aided each other and shared information
that we though was interesting and could be useful in other sections of the website. We each found
and wrote up any written material that we were going to use and then transferred this material onto
the website. After which, we added pictures and media where we thought it was appropriate. Finally,
the three of us went through the website and edited it to as close as perfection as we could.

How our project relates to the theme:

Our project relates to the 2015 theme of leadership and legacy by portraying the life of
Maurice Hilleman. Throughout the project, we incorporated various aspects of Hillemans life that
portray him as the leader that he waswhether as a team leader while working under MERCK or as
the leader in creating vaccinations during the 20 th century. Hilleman took the initiative to create
vaccines when his daughter became ill and had since then created more vaccines than any other
scientist. As for his legacy, he is accredited for creating over 40 vaccines and his devotion and work
was the spark which ignited vaccines into action and into the lives of people around the world.

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