Randolph Frederick Pausch
(born October 23, 1960, died July 25, 2008) was a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU ) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was also an author with a high number of sales on their books, achieving worldwide fame for his work "The Last Lecture" speech he gave on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon University. In August 2006, Pausch was diagnosed with metastasized pancreatic cancer. He started a very aggressive treatment for cancer that included surgery and experimental chemotherapy, but in August 2007, he was told the cancer had metastasized to the liver and spleen, which meant it was terminal. He then started palliative chemotherapy, to prolong his life trying everything possible. On May 2, 2008, a PET scan showed that his cancer had spread to his lungs, some lymph nodes in the chest and metastases in the peritoneum and retroperitoneum. On June 26, 2008, Pausch said he was considering stopping further chemotherapy because of potential adverse side effects. On July 25, 2008 died of pancreatic cancer.
