Dr. Temple Grandin

The world knows Temple Grandin as the face of autism. Her accomplishments as a speaker, author and advocate earned her a place among TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2010. Her life story was detailed in the acclaimed HBO biopic, Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin continues to speak and write about autism, most recently in her book Different…Not Less. Dr. Grandin has been professor of animal science at Colorado State University for over 20 years and has made enormous contributions to the livestock industry. Her insights into animal behavior shaped innovative approaches to livestock handling that have become the industry standard.

John Elder Robison

John Elder Robison is an autistic adult who grew up in a world of machines. At 16 he was lord and master of a small tractor and a CDC3600 computer. At 21, he was the engineer for KISS, where he designed their signature special effects guitars. In search of greater challenges, John went on to design power systems for our country’s last underground nuclear tests, which led him to establish a business restoring Land Rover, Mercedes, and Rolls-Royce motorcars. He continues to own and oversee that business today, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is also the Neurodiversity Scholar at The College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia and a Visiting Professor of Practice at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

John is the author of Look Me in the Eye, Be Different, Raising Cubby, and Switched On. He has appeared on a number of radio and television shows, and also written numerous articles and essays, including the definitive works on Diagnosis of Noises in Land Rover Engines. He lives in Western Massachusetts with his family and an Imperial Chinese War Pug.

Steve Silberman

Steve Silberman is an award-winning science writer whose articles have appeared in Wired, The New Yorker, the MIT Technology Review, Nature, Salon, Shambhala Sun, and many other publications. He is also the author of The New York Times best-selling NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, which unearths the secret history of autism, long suppressed by the same clinicians who first became famous for discovering it, while also discovering surprising answers to the crucial question of why the number of diagnoses has soared in recent years. The book received a California Book Award as well as the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction — the first popular science book to win the prize in its 17-year history. Silberman speaks regularly at schools and universities, advocacy groups and organizations, and corporations including Microsoft, Google, and Apple.