82 Facts About Temple Grandin

Mary Temple Grandin was born on August 29,1947 and is an American academic and animal behaviorist.

Temple Grandin is a prominent proponent for the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter and the author of more than 60 scientific papers on animal behavior.

Temple Grandin is one of the first autistic people to document the insights she gained from her personal experience of autism.

Temple Grandin is currently a faculty member with Animal Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University.

Temple Grandin was the subject of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning biographical film Temple Grandin.

Temple Grandin has been an outspoken proponent of autism rights and neurodiversity movements.

Mary Temple Grandin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, into a wealthy family.

One of the family's employees was named Mary, so Grandin was referred to by her middle name, Temple, to avoid confusion.

Temple Grandin's mother is Anna Eustacia Purves, an actress, singer, and granddaughter of John Coleman Purves.

Temple Grandin has a degree in English from Harvard University.

Temple Grandin's father was Richard McCurdy Grandin, a real estate agent and heir to the largest corporate wheat farm business in the United States at the time, Grandin Farms.

Temple Grandin's parents divorced when she was 15, and her mother eventually went on to marry Ben Cutler, a renowned New York saxophonist, in 1965, when Temple Grandin was 18 years old.

Temple Grandin has three younger siblings: two sisters and a brother.

Temple Grandin has described one of her sisters as being dyslexic.

Temple Grandin's younger sister is an artist, her other sister is a sculptor, and her brother is a banker.

John Grandin intended to cut a deal with John D Rockefeller in a meeting, but the latter kept him waiting so long that he walked out before Rockefeller arrived.

Temple Grandin was not formally diagnosed with autism until her adulthood.

Temple Grandin's mother took her to the world's leading special needs researchers at the Boston Children's Hospital, with the hope of unearthing an alternative to institutionalization.

Temple Grandin considers herself fortunate to have had supportive mentors from elementary school onward.

Temple Grandin's father was keen to follow this advice, while her mother was strongly opposed to the idea as it likely would have caused her to never be able to see her daughter again.

Temple Grandin attended Beaver Country Day School from seventh grade to ninth grade.

Temple Grandin was expelled at the age of 14 for throwing a book at a schoolmate who had taunted her.

Temple Grandin has described herself as the "nerdy kid" whom everyone ridiculed.

Temple Grandin has described occasions when she walked down the hallways and her fellow students would taunt her by saying "tape recorder" because of her habit of repetitive speech.

Three years later, Temple Grandin's mother married Ben Cutler, a New York saxophonist.

At 15, Temple Grandin spent a summer on the Arizona ranch of Ben Cutler's sister, Ann, and this would become a formative experience toward her subsequent career interest.

Several reports and sources cited the different names of the schools Temple Grandin attended: Beaver Country Day School or Cherry Falls Girl's School ; and Hampshire Country School or Mountain Day School.

Temple Grandin was accepted there and became Winter Carnival Queen and captain of the hockey team.

At HCS, Temple Grandin met William Carlock, a science teacher who had worked for NASA, who became her mentor and helped her significantly toward building up her self-confidence.

Carlock's supportive role in Temple Grandin's life continued even after she left Hampshire Country School.

When Temple Grandin was facing criticism for her hug box at Franklin Pierce College, it was Carlock who suggested that Temple Grandin undertake scientific experiments to evaluate the efficacy of the device.

Temple Grandin is a prominent and widely cited proponent for the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter.

Temple Grandin is internationally famous as a spokesperson on autism, as well.

Steve Silberman, in his book NeuroTribes, wrote that Temple Grandin helped break down years of shame and stigma because she was one of the first adults to publicly disclose that she was autistic.

In Developing Talents, 2nd Edition, Temple Grandin explores many unnoticed aspects of vocational rehabilitation programs that provide job training and placement for people with disabilities, as well as Social Security Administration programs that offer vocational assistance.

When her book Thinking in Pictures was written in 1995, Temple Grandin thought that all individuals with autism thought in photographic-specific images the way she did.

Temple Grandin became well-known beyond the American autistic community, after being described by Oliver Sacks in the title narrative of his book An Anthropologist on Mars, for which he won a Polk Award.

Temple Grandin seemed shy and pleasant, but mostly she just listened.

Temple Grandin quickly became a much sought-after speaker in the autism community.

Temple Grandin has described her hypersensitivity to noise and other sensory stimuli.

Temple Grandin attributes her success as a humane livestock facility designer to her ability to recall detail, which is a characteristic of her visual memory.

Temple Grandin is able to view her memories using slightly different contexts by changing the positions of the lighting and shadows.

In 1980 Temple Grandin published her first two scientific articles on beef cattle behavior during handling: "Livestock Behavior as Related to Handling Facilities Design" in the International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems, Vol.

Temple Grandin was one of the first scientists to report that animals are sensitive to visual distractions in handling facilities such as shadows, dangling chains, and other environmental details that most people do not notice.

Temple Grandin expanded her theories in her book, Animals Make Us Human.

Temple Grandin wrote three chapters and included chapters from contributors from around the world.

Temple Grandin developed an objective, numerical scoring system for assessing animal welfare at slaughtering plants.

In 2008, Temple Grandin published Humane Livestock Handling with contributions by Mark Deesing, a long time collaborator with her.

The book contains a review of the main aspects of cattle behavior and provides a visual guide in the form of construction plans and diagrams for the implementation of Temple Grandin's ideas relating to humane livestock handling.

Temple Grandin is the author or co-author of more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers on a variety of other animal behavior subjects.

Temple Grandin has lectured widely about her first-hand experiences of the anxiety of feeling threatened by everything in her surroundings, and of being dismissed and feared, which motivates her work in humane livestock handling processes.

Temple Grandin studied the behavior of cattle, how they react to ranchers, movements, objects, and light.

Temple Grandin then designed curved corrals she adapted with the intention of reducing stress, panic, and injury in animals being led to slaughter.

In 2004, Temple Grandin won a "Proggy" award in the "Visionary" category, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Temple Grandin was named a fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers in 2009.

In 2012, when the American beef industry was struggling with public perception of its use and sale of pink slime, Temple Grandin spoke out in support of the food product.

Temple Grandin's work has attracted the attention of philosophers interested in the moral status of animals.

One view found in the academic literature is that Temple Grandin's method of slaughter is a significant positive development for animals, but her attempts to formulate a moral defense of meat-eating have been less successful.

Temple Grandin says that "the part of other people that has emotional relationships is not part of me", and she has neither married nor had children.

Temple Grandin later stated that she preferred the science fiction, documentary, and thriller genre of films and television shows to more dramatic or romantic ones.

Temple Grandin has noted in her autobiographical works that autism affects every aspect of her life.

Temple Grandin has to wear comfortable clothes to counteract her sensory processing disorder and has structured her lifestyle to avoid sensory overload.

In 2010, Temple Grandin was named in the Time 100 list of the one hundred most influential people in the world, in the "Heroes" category.

Temple Grandin has received honorary degrees from many universities including McGill University in Canada, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, and Emory University.

In 2012, Temple Grandin was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.

In 2012, Temple Grandin was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame.

Temple Grandin received a Meritorious Achievement Award from the World Organisation for Animal Health in 2015.

In 2016, Temple Grandin was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2017, Temple Grandin was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

In 2023, Temple Grandin was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by Iowa State University.

Temple Grandin has been featured on major media programs, such as Lisa Davis' It's Your Health, ABC's Primetime Live, the Today Show, Larry King Live, and Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

Temple Grandin has been written up in Time magazine, People magazine, Discover magazine, Forbes, and The New York Times.

In 2012, Temple Grandin was interviewed on Thriving Canine Radio to discuss "A Different Perspective on Animal Behavior".

Temple Grandin was the subject of the Horizon documentary "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow", first broadcast by the BBC on June 8,2006, and Nick News with Linda Ellerbee in the spring of 2006.

Temple Grandin was the subject of the first episode in the series First Person by Errol Morris.

Grandin is the focus of a semi-biographical HBO film entitled Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes as Grandin.

Temple Grandin was on stage as the award was accepted and she spoke briefly to the audience.

Temple Grandin was featured in Beautiful Minds: A Voyage Into the Brain, a documentary produced in 2006 by Colourfield Tell-A-Vision, a German company.

Temple Grandin was named one of 2010's one hundred most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

In 2018, Temple Grandin was featured in the documentary This Business of Autism, which explored autism employment and the success story of autism employers such as Spectrum Designs Foundation and was produced by Mesh Omnimedia.

Temple Grandin was interviewed by Michael Pollan in his best-selling book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, in which she discussed the livestock industry.

In 2018, Temple Grandin was profiled in the book Rescuing Ladybugs by author and animal advocate Jennifer Skiff as a "global hero" for "standing her ground and fighting for change after witnessing the extreme mistreatment of animals" used in farming.