Computer science professor Randy Pausch, of the Carnegie Mellon University, whose last lecture became both an Internet hit and a bestselling book, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 47.

Last September, Dr. Pausch became famous internationally after holding his “last lecture”, entitled "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." In the Last Lecture series the speakers had to imagine they were giving their final lecture before dying. In these talks professors usually talk about things that are most important to them.

After opening his speech with the news that he had cancer in its terminal phase, Dr. Pausch delivered an inspirational speech, in which he recalled his own childhood dreams and talked about his ways of helping his own children and others achieve their own goals in life. He gave tips about education and leadership and also mentioned his love of “Star Trek.” It was clear that he had decided to celebrate life instead of focusing of his upcoming death.

"The lecture was for my kids, but if others are finding value in it, that is wonderful," Pausch wrote on his Web site. "But rest assured; I'm hardly unique."

After Carnegie Mellon alumnus Jeff Zaslow wrote about the speech in The Wall Street Journal, where he worked as a columnist, several media outlets and bloggers linked to the story, and millions of people watched an Internet video of the talk. The lecture became more and more famous and was eventually translated into seven languages. Shortly after, Hyperion published it in April as a book, which soon leaped to the top of the nonfiction best-seller lists where it remained until this week. The book deal was reported to be worth more than $6 million.

Pausch was also much appreciated at Carnegie Mellon as a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design, as well as a talented showman, teacher and mentor.

He is survived by his wife, Jai, and three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe, his mother, Virginia Pausch and a sister, Tamara Mason.