Autistic Prodigy Daniel Tammet To Speak At Convocation posted 10/30/07
Author of Born on a Blue Day to speak on Oct. 31 at Adrian College.

Adrian, MI – Daniel Tammet, a high-functioning autistic savant, is scheduled to speak on Wednesday, October 31, at 12 p.m. in Dawson Auditorium.

Many leading scientists believe that Daniel Tammet—a high-functioning autistic savant, one of fewer than fifty in the world—may hold the key to finally unlocking the secrets of autism. (http://thelavinagency.com/college/danieltammet.html)

The subject of intense media attention from around the world, Tammet is unique in his ability to articulate his savant experience. He describes his visual experience of numbers as complex shapes with colour, texture and motion. Thirty-seven, for instance, is lumpy like porridge, while eighty-nine reminds him of falling snow.

Virtually unique amongst people who have severe autistic disorders, Tammet is capable of living a fully independent life. His incredible self-awareness and ability to communicate what it feels like to live in a unique way is the subject of his powerful memoir, Born on a Blue Day, hailed by one reviewer as filled with "some of the clearest prose this side of Hemingway."

Daniel Tammet came to worldwide prominence as the subject of the award-winning documentary Brainman, which showed him reciting Pi from memory to 22,514 digits, beating the house at blackjack in Las Vegas, and being given the challenge to learn a new language—Icelandic—from scratch in just seven days, before an interview in Reykjavik.

Dawson Auditorium is located off of Charles Street on the Adrian College campus. This event is free and open to the public.