Grandin, Temple (1947-…), is an American animal scientist and advocate for people with autism . Animal science concerns the raising, breeding, and caring for livestock . Grandin works with the livestock industry on facility design, livestock handling, and ways to improve livestock animal welfare. She is also a prominent author and speaker on autism, a neurological condition characterized by limited ability to communicate and interact with other people.
Mary Temple Grandin was born on Aug. 29, 1947, in Boston, Massachusetts. As a child, she was not formally diagnosed with autism. Her parents believed she had suffered brain damage and she did not speak until well after age 3. She received speech therapy and joined her peers in kindergarten by age 5. Although she was often bullied in school, some of her teachers encouraged her interests in science and animals. Grandin earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire in 1970. She went on to receive her master’s degree in animal science in 1975 from Arizona State University. She earned her doctorate in the same field at the University of Illinois in 1989. She is currently professor of animal science at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Grandin has been an important spokesperson for people with autism. In writings, lectures, and videos, she advocates for the early detection of the condition. Grandin views autism as part of the natural spectrum of neurodiversity (range of differences in brain function and behavioral characteristics) expressed among humans rather than a disorder or handicap that must be treated or cured. She recommends early educational intervention that helps children with autism develop within their own interests and abilities. She states that her contributions to animal science would not have been possible without the sensitivities of her autism. Comparing animal cognition (thinking and awareness) to cognition of people with autism, Grandin claims that she “thinks like an animal.” She uses this knowledge to help design more humane livestock-handling procedures and facilities.
The English-born neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote about Grandin in his popular 1995 book An Anthropologist on Mars. ( Neurology is the field of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the nervous system and muscles.) The title of Sacks’s book refers to Grandin’s description of how she feels as a person with autism interacting socially with other people. Grandin has written many scholarly articles and books on livestock care. Her popular books include Emergence: Labeled Autistic (1986), Thinking in Pictures – My Life with Autism (1995), Animals in Translation (2005), and Animals Make Us Human (2009).
