Dr. Randy Pausch was born Randolph Frederick Pausch on 23 October 1960. He married Jai Glasgow Pausch in May 2000 and they have three young children. Dylan, the eldest son, is six years old, followed by second son, Logan, and youngest daughter Chloe, two.
Educational Qualifications:
Dr. Pausch received his Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Brown University and his Doctorate degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Career Achievements:
Dr. Randy Pausch is a Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design at CMU.
He is the co-founder of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and the creator of ETC’s “Building Virtual Worlds” course, where four to five students form one interdisciplinary team, each using their respective skills and talents to help create interactive worlds within two to three weeks.
He is also the creator and founder of the “Alice Software Project”, a revolutionary software that teaches computer programming and provides a rapid-prototyping environment for interactive 3D graphics and virtual reality. He has authored/co-authored five books and over 70 articles on computing and virtual reality.
Besides his academic career at CMU, Dr. Pausch has served as consultant to various large corporations. These include Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (1989 – 1995), Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts (since 1996) and Google.com (since 2000, focusing on user interface design). Since 2000, he has been sitting on the Board of Directors for Media Metrix, Inc.
Claim to Fame:
Dr. Pausch became famous after a recording of his ‘Last Lecture’ at CMU on 18 September 2007 was posted on YouTube. Despite fighting terminal pancreatic cancer and the prospects of impending death, his lecture was neither morose nor full of self-pity. Rather, he focused on living life well and shared his ideas on achieving one’s childhood dreams. Details of the lecture’s contents can be found here.
The various recordings of his inspirational and motivating lecture garnered more than six million views on YouTube. Subsequently, Dr. Pausch was invited to be a guest of The Oprah Winfrey Show on 22 Oct 2007, under the segment Dr. (Mehmet) Oz: A Special Report on Death. He was also featured on Good Morning America, ABC World News and CBS Evening News.
Recognition:
For his contributions to CMU and the fields of computer science and virtual reality, and for sharing his ‘Last Lecture’ with the Pittsburg community and the world, the City Council of Pittsburg declared 19 Nov 2007 as "Randy Pausch Day".
Personal Mission:
Despite his medical condition, Dr. Pausch continues leading an active life. Besides working and taking care of his family, he engages in sports, cycling regularly and even going for diving trips. He does so to disprove the typical image of an ailing and dying cancer patient.
He also took it upon himself to raise the public’s awareness of pancreatic cancer by recording public service announcements for PanCAN (Pancreatic Cancer Action Network).
On 13 March 2008, despite being discharged from hospital only three days ago for heart and renal problems, he provided testimony on behalf of PanCAN to the Labor, Health & Human Services Subcommittee of the U.S. Congress, in order to seek additional funding towards pancreatic cancer research.
While Dr. Pausch continues medical treatment and his fight against cancer, his latest book The Last Lecture, co-authored with Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Zaslow, will be published by Hyperion Books on 8 April 2008.
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