Template:Realworld Template:2008spoiler Randy Pausch (born 23 October 1960; age 63) is a Professor of computer science who will have a cameo part in the upcoming Star Trek. He was invited by J.J. Abrams to visit the set and take the chance to be in the new Star Trek movie. As a Trek fan, Pausch travelled to Los Angeles, got his custom made uniform and even the line "Captain, we have visual!". [1]
Born as Randolph Frederik Pausch, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2006. He is the co-founder of Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center, where he got his Ph.D. in computer science. He served also as director for the stage 3 research group and was primary involved in the development of the Alice software project. Pausch has written and co-authored five books and over fifty articles.
In August 2007 Pausch was informed that the cancer has returned and metastasized to his liver and spleen, with a prognosis of about six months. Pausch held his last lecture "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on 18 September 2007 [2] and moved with his wife Jai and his children Chloe, Dylan and Logan to Virginia. His last lecture gained international attention and he was named "Person of the week" on ABC's World News. He made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show and has been in contact with reporter Jeff Zaslow, who writes down Pausch's words for the upcoming Hyperion published book "The Last Lecture".