Dying professor honored as teacher of year

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A Pittsburgh professor with terminal cancer has been honored with an award from the Association for Computer Machinery as its 2007 Educator of the Year.

In September, Randy Pausch gave his final lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. The lecture has been viewed by more than 1 million people online, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Pausch and Jeff Zaslow, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, have received a $6.7 million advance for a book based on the lecture.

The announcement that Pausch is to receive the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award specifically mentioned his development of a teaching program for student programmers. "Alice" uses cartoon figures to help students learn to write computer code.

Pausch, 47, suffers from pancreatic cancer. He is receiving palliative treatment that may extend his life.