Mr Hilleman's contribution to winning it was to develop vaccines to protect soldiers fighting in the Pacific.
Mr Hilleman established that the flu virus is constantly mutating, making it difficult to provide a reliable vaccine.
It also has me thinking about one of the greatest industry researchers of the past century: Merck vaccine maven Maurice Hilleman.
FORBES: Why One Great Vaccine Researcher Wasn't Afraid Of Bird Flu
AIDS. Mr Hilleman, usually a gentle, patient man, got angry about this.
Getting a vaccine through its numerous trials to be licenced for public use was the big thrill in Mr Hilleman's life, he said.
Mr Hilleman believed that science would eventually rid the world of disease, as it had disposed of smallpox in 1979 and is close to banishing polio.
In 1957, when flu swept through Hong Kong, Mr Hilleman identified the virus as a new form to which people had no natural immunity and passed on his findings to vaccine-makers.
To me, one of the most useful stories for understanding why H5N1 is not worth losing much sleep over right now is the tale of how Hilleman, who created the vaccines for mumps, measles, and hepatitis B, among others diseases.
FORBES: Why One Great Vaccine Researcher Wasn't Afraid Of Bird Flu
FORBES: Why One Great Vaccine Researcher Wasn't Afraid Of Bird Flu
FORBES: Why One Great Vaccine Researcher Wasn't Afraid Of Bird Flu
Mr Hilleman's greatest contribution to a healthy world may have been his work on the safe mass production of vaccines that can be stored ready for use against the pandemics that since antiquity have regularly swept across continents, such as the 1918 flu outbreak that killed more than 20m people.
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