Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Randolph Frederick “Randy” Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science and human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Pausch learned that he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006, and in August 2007 he was given a terminal diagnosis: “3 to 6 months of good health left”. He gave an upbeat lecture entitled “The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”” on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon. He then co-authored a book called The Last Lecture on the same theme, which became a NYT best-seller. Pausch died of complications from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008.