Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is a
professor, best-selling author, animal behaviorist, and autism
self-advocate in top demand as an international speaker. An
extraordinary inspiration for autistic children and their parents, she
is the subject of the Emmy and Golden Globe winning HBO film, Temple
Grandin, starring Claire Danes and Julia Ormond, and she was also one of
Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2010.
Diagnosed
with autism when she was three, Dr. Grandin's mother rejected her
doctor's advice to institutionalize her, and provided her with intensive
speech therapy, a structured home and a nurturing school environment.
Later, with encouragement from her high school science teacher and an
aunt who ran a ranch in Arizona, Dr. Grandin pursued a career in animal
science. With unique abilities to think visually and recall small
details she began to design humane live-stock handling equipment,
eventually revolutionizing the industry. Today over half the cattle in
North America are handled in a system she designed. Other professional
activities include developing animal welfare guidelines for the meat
industry and consulting with McDonalds, Wendy's International, Burger
King, and other major companies.
Dr. Grandin has authored over
400 articles in both scientific journals and livestock periodicals on
animal handling, welfare, and facility design. In her book, Thinking in
Pictures, she makes the case that the world needs people on the autism
spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers... In a
recent interview she stated, "I read in the paper that Google was
starving for talent. Well, these geeky, quirky kids, we need to get them
interested in science. They're not going to get interested if they're
not exposed to it." Of her many books, Animals in Translation and
Animals Make Us Human were both on the New York Times best seller list.
Dr.
Grandin's numerous awards include honorary doctorates from McGill
University, University of Illinois, and Duke University. She is a fellow
of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, and a
past member of the board of the Autism Society of America. Dr. Grandin
obtained her B.A. at Franklin Pierce College, her M.S. in Animal Science
at Arizona State University, and her Ph.D. in Animal Science from the
University of Illinois. She is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado
State University.
