Randy Pausch was a co-founder of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction, and design at the university. He was a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow and a Presidential Young Investigator of the National Science Foundation. He took sabbaticals from Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts (EA), as well as advising Google on user interface design. Dr. Pausch earned his bachelor's degree in computer science and his doctorate in computer science from Brown University. Carnegie Mellon University awarded him a bachelor's degree in computer science.

He was the director of the Alice software project (www.alice.org), and he had traveled in zero gravity. In Virginia, he lived with his wife, Jai, and their three small children. The Wall Street Journal essay by Jeff Zaslow sparked initial interest in Randy Pausch's talk. He's also the co-author of The Highest Responsibility by Captain Chesley Sullenberger and the author of The Girls from Ames, both blockbusters.