Temple Grandin is an international lecturer on autism, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, a best-selling and award-winning author, an autism activist, a consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior, and an engineer. She also created the hug box, a device designed to calm those on the autism spectrum. The subject of an award-winning, 2010 biographical film, Temple Grandin was also listed in the TIME 100 list of the one hundred most influential people in the world, in the Heroes category. Temple's achievements are remarkable because she was a child with autism. At age two, she had speech delays as well as other signs of severe autism. Fortunately, her mother defied the advice of her doctor and husband, who recommended she be institutionalized. Many hours of speech therapy and intensive training enabled Temple to speak. Mentoring by her high school science teacher and her aunt on her ranch in Arizona motivated Temple to study and pursue a career as a scientist and livestock equipment designer. She is author of Emergence: Labeled Autistic; Thinking in Pictures; Animals in Translation; Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships; The Way I See It; DIFFERENT...Not Less, and more books.
