Thomas J. Templin is a professor and former head of the Department of Health and Kinesiology, College of Liberal Arts, at Purdue University. He also holds a courtesy appointment as a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education. He received his education at Indiana University (B.S., 1972, M.S., 1975) and at the University of Michigan (Ph.D., 1978). He has been a member of the Purdue faculty since 1977 and served as an administrator from 1988 to 2006.
Dr. Templin has received various honors through his career. Recently, he received the 2008 Curriculum and Instruction Honor Award from the C&I Academy within the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. In 2006, he was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education. He was the Doris Drees Distinguished Scholar Lecturer at the University of Dayton in the fall of 2006 and was the 100th Lansdowne Scholar for the faculty of education at the University of Victoria in the spring of 2003. Dr. Templin received the Midwest American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Scholar Award in 2005 and the Outstanding Teacher Educator Award from the Indian Association of Colleges for Teacher Education in 1986.

Tom has focused his research on the lives and careers of physical education teachers. He is well known as an author and editor/reviewer of numerous journal publications and books on physical education, including A Reflective Approach to Teaching Physical Education with Don Hellison and Socialization into Physical Education: Learning to Teach with Paul Schempp. In collaboration with the Lafayette School Corporation and Purdue colleagues Alan Smith (PI) and Bonnie Blankenship, Tom will serve as a co-investigator in a three-year project funded through the 2008 Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant program through the Department of Education. Additionally, with Russell Carson and Howard Weiss, he completed research funded by the Spencer Foundation to study emotion and affective events in teaching.

Dr. Templin has served in leadership roles and has presented numerous national and international papers for various professional organizations, including the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD) and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He is a former president of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, which represents 17,000 physical education and sport professionals.

An avid golfer, Dr. Templin serves as a consultant with the Professional Golfers’ Association of American through its university program, Play Golf America University, and as chair of the association’s scholarship committee.