RSAC Set to Honor Excellence in the Field of Mathematics Awards, Inaugural Test of Time Awards at RSAC 2026 Conference

SAN FRANCISCO, March 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- RSA Conference LLC ("RSAC"), the premier global platform for the cybersecurity community and host of the world's largest and most influential cybersecurity conference, today announced the recipients of the Award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics: Yehuda Lindell, professor in the Department of Computer Science at Bar-llan University and leader of the cryptography team at Coinbase, and Nigel Smart, professor at COSIC at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Chief Academic Officer at Zama. The inaugural RSAC Test of Time Award winning papers have also been announced, and select authors will present their impactful work and be honored at RSAC™ 2026 Conference.

"All of our award winners this year have made significant and remarkable contributions to the cybersecurity industry, and more specifically, cryptography," said Linda Gray Martin, Senior Vice President, RSAC™ Conference. "Our newly formed Test of Time Awards honor research that was foundational at the time and has had lasting and impactful influence on the industry, shaping understanding and motivating new and exciting breakthroughs."

Award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics, Co-Sponsored by IACR
First presented in 1998, the RSAC™ Conference Award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics acknowledges the outstanding contributions of individuals and/or organizations whose work in cryptography and mathematics helps to advance the cybersecurity industry. Award recipients are determined by an esteemed judging committee which seeks to recognize innovation and ongoing contributions to the industry. For the fifth consecutive year, the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) is co-sponsoring the Mathematics Award with RSAC Conference.

The recipients of the RSAC 2026 Conference Excellence in the Field of Mathematics Award are:

Yehuda Lindell 
Tuesday, March 24, YBCA Stage Keynote at 9:30 AM during the Cryptographers' Panel 

Prof. Yehuda Lindell has been selected for advancing and deploying practical Multi-Party Computations and Threshold Cryptography, and for contributions to the foundations of cryptographic protocols. Lindell is the Head of Cryptography at Coinbase and a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Bar-Ilan University (on leave). He received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science and was a Raviv Postdoctoral fellow in the Cryptographic Research Group at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. Lindell was the co-founder and CEO of a company called Unbound Security that used secure multiparty computation to protect cryptographic keys and secrets of all types. In January 2022, Unbound Security was acquired by Coinbase. 

Nigel Smart 
Tuesday, March 24, YBCA Stage Keynote at 9:30 AM during the Cryptographers' Panel 

Prof. Nigel Smart has been selected for advancing and deploying practical Multi-Party Computations and Threshold Cryptography, and for contributions to the underlying mathematics of cryptography. Smart is a Professor at COSIC at KU Leuven and Chief Academic Officer at Zama. He is a cryptography researcher and entrepreneur. From 2000 to 2017, Smart founded and ran the cryptology research group at the University of Bristol, before joining COSIC at KU Leuven in 2018. In parallel, he founded several successful companies, including Identum (acquired by Trend Micro) and Unbound Security (acquired by Coinbase). He is also the co-founder of the popular cryptography conference, Real World Crypto. Smart received his Ph.D. from the University of Kent at Canterbury.

"The IACR is proud to be co-sponsoring the Excellence in the Field of Mathematics Award for the fifth consecutive year," said Allison Bishop, President, IACR. "The award winners in 2026 have made foundational contributions to the science of cryptography, as well as practical impact in deploying and advancing Multi-Party Computations and Threshold Cryptography. We are honored to highlight their accomplishments in the cryptography space over several decades."

RSAC Test of Time Awards
The inaugural RSAC Test of Time Awards are dedicated to the application and advancement of cryptography and its impact to the broader cybersecurity community while honoring the discipline's foundational and innovative role. The 2026 Test of Time Award recognizes papers from the first three years of CT-RSA proceedings (2001-2003), evaluating them based on number of academic citations and the lasting industry impact of the research on the field. There will be two sessions at RSAC 2026 Conference to honor this year's award-winning papers:

Test of Time: Oracle Diffie-Hellman Assumptions and an Analysis of DHIES
Monday, March 23 at 2:20 PM

The authors of The Oracle Diffie-Hellman Assumptions and an Analysis of DHIES paper, published in 2001 as part of the first RSAC Cryptography track in 2001, are: Michel Abdalla, Mihir Bellare, and Phillip Rogaway.

Test of Time: Homomorphic Signature Schemes
Tuesday, March 24 at 2:25 PM

The authors of the Homomorphic Signature Schemes paper, published in 2002, are: Robert Johnson, David Molnar, Dawn Song, and David Wagner.

RSAC 2026 Conference will take place March 23-26 in San Francisco at the Moscone Center.

About RSAC
As the cybersecurity industry's convening authority, RSAC brings together diverse minds to exchange perspectives, knowledge, and ideas. RSAC provides the world's leading platform for uniting and advancing the cybersecurity community to create a safer society. RSAC is at the cutting edge of cybersecurity innovation and education. The company's flagship event, RSAC Conference, is the largest and most influential global gathering in cybersecurity. RSAC gives cybersecurity professionals a platform to connect and grow. To learn more, visit www.OneRSAC.com.

About RSAC Conference
RSAC Conference is the largest and most influential Conference in the cybersecurity industry. Today, under the expanded RSAC brand, the Conference is central to a larger mission that unites the cybersecurity community to create a safer society. To learn more, visit www.rsaconference.com/usa.  

About the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) 
The International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) is a non-profit organization devoted to the advancement of the science of cryptology. The IACR organizes a series of conferences and workshops and publishes several proceedings and journals. The IACR also maintains the Cryptology ePrint Archive, an online repository of cryptologic research papers aimed at providing rapid dissemination of results. For more information, please visit www.iacr.org.

SOURCE RSAC