Temple Grandin named one of Time's 100 most influential people

From The Rocky Mountain Collegian, the student newspaper at Colorado State University:

CSU professor Temple Grandin (pictured) stands outside of the HBO movie presentation about her life at the Lory Student Center Theater on Feb. 7. Fort Collins Mayor Doug Hutchinson declared April 6 ‘Temple Grandin Day’ to honor her contributions to the treatment of autism and her work in the agricultural field.

About the award What: CSU professor receives No. 32 spot in the 2010 TIME 100 Who: Professor and best-selling author, Temple Grandin When: Monday, May 10 CSU professor of animal sciences and best-selling author Temple Grandin beat out more than 6.8 billion people in the world to make TIME magazine’s top 100 most influential people of 2010.

Grandin landed the No. 32 spot after collecting over 15,000 public votes over three weeks. This year’s issue allowed people to vote on who they believed inspired people all over the world.

“I was really pleased that I got that many votes. That made me really happy,” Grandin said.

Grandin has studied animal behavior for more than 30years and has found enormous success with a stress-free manner of transporting cattle to slaughterhouses. Companies like Burger King, McDonalds and Swift have used her research to develop safe facilities to transport their own cattle.

“We’re very proud of Temple, not only professionally but of her impact in increasing awareness with individuals with autism and as a role model and individual who has accomplished so much when other individuals didn’t give her much of a chance,” said Craig Bearouty, the dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Doctors diagnosed Grandin with autism in 1950 when she was only 3 years old and recommended placing her in a mental institution –– a common practice at the time. Instead, her family chose to integrate her into private schools and encouraged her to go to college.

“I think that like other individuals who have surmounted difficult personal challenges, Temple gives hope that one can rise above difficulties, even those that were handed to you at birth, as in the case of autism and Aspergers,” said Harvard psychology professor Marc Hauser in an e-mail to the Collegian. Hauser wrote about Grandin for TIME magazine’s May issue.

HBO created a full-length feature film about Grandin’s life this past February starring Claire Danes, which highlighted her struggles and successes.

“They did a wonderful job with the HBO special,” said Grandin.

She is currently set to speak at autism and Aspergers syndrome conferences around the country. At the conferences, Grandin assures parents of children with autism that their children’s disability will not become their identity.

“They see that if I can do it, they can do it too,” Grandin said.