TEMPLE GRANDIN has redefined society’s perception of what is possible for people with autism. Her world-famous “hug machine,” a pressure device she invented to alleviate her own anxiety, led to the invention of pressure therapies for autistic people worldwide. She has been instrumental in explaining sensory sensitivity as well as how autistic people think. Grandin is perhaps best known, however, for being a passionate and effective animal advocate and for explaining to humans how animals think. She revolutionized animal movement systems and spearheaded reform of the quality of life and humaneness of death for farm animals. In fact, half the cattle in the United States and Canada are handled in systems she designed.
An associate professor at Colorado State University, Grandin holds a Ph.D. in animal science from the University of Illinois. She is the author of four books: Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life with Autism, Emergence: Labeled Autistic, Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals, and Livestock Handling and Transport. Through her company, Grandin Livestock Systems, she works with the country’s fast food purveyors, including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King, to monitor the conditions of animal facilities worldwide. She lectures widely on both animal science and autism and serves as a role model for hundreds of thousands of families and people with autism.
CATHERINE JOHNSON, Ph.D., is a writer specializing in the brain and neuropsychiatry. For seven years she served as a trustee of the National Alliance for Autism Research, returning to civilian life just in time to begin work with Temple Grandin on Animals in Translation. She is the mother of three boys, two of whom have autism, and lives with her husband and children in Irvington, New York.