Curriculum Vitae

Mahdi Rahimi

Postdoctoral Researcher, COSIC – KU Leuven
Email: mahdi.rahimi@esat.kuleuven.be
Affiliation: COSIC, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven

About

Mahdi Rahimi is a postdoctoral researcher at the COSIC research group, KU Leuven, working on anonymous communication, mix networks, privacy-preserving systems, and applied cryptography. He is the recipient of a 3-year FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship, starting in November 2026.

He received his PhD from KU Leuven in August 2026 under the supervision of Prof. Claudia Diaz, graduating summa cum laude with the congratulations of the Board of Examiners (awarded to the top 5% of KU Leuven doctorates). His PhD focused on Latency Optimization and Anonymity Enhancement in Mix Networks. During his PhD, he received the Best Student Paper Award at ACNS 2025 and the Distinguished Artifact Award at NDSS 2026.

Research Statement

My research lies at the intersection of security, privacy, and society, with a focus on making strong privacy guarantees practical and deployable. I work on overcoming long-standing limitations in mix networks, particularly latency and scalability, which have historically prevented their adoption in real-world systems. My contributions are now considered part of the state of the art in mixnet research and aim to enable scalable, low-latency anonymous communication for everyday internet use.

Research Interests

• Anonymous Communication Systems (Mix Networks)
• Privacy-Preserving Systems
• Applied Cryptography

Education

PhD in Computer Science, COSIC, KU Leuven, 2021–2026 Supervisor: Prof. Claudia Diaz

Graduated with a PhD summa cum laude, with the congratulations of the Board of Examiners (awarded by KU Leuven only to the top 5% of doctorates)

Thesis: Latency Optimization and Anonymity Enhancement in Mix Networks

MSc in Cryptography and Secure Communication, Sharif University of Technology, 2020
Ranked 1st in class
Thesis: Information-Theoretic Approaches to Network Security

BSc in Electrical Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, 2018
Specialization: Telecommunication Systems
Ranked 2nd out of 125 students

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Conference Publications

• H. Zhang, G. Xiong, G. Gou, Z. Li, W. Xia, Z. Chen, H. Li, and M.Rahimi,
  FlowContrast: Few-Shot Multimedia Traffic Representation Learning in LEO Satellite Networks,
  in Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME 2026), 2026.

• M. Rahimi,
  When Mixnets Fail: Evaluating, Quantifying, and Mitigating the Impact of Adversarial Nodes in Mix Networks,
  Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), 2026.

  🏆 Distinguished Artifact Award

  Paper · BibTeX

• M. Rahimi,
  OptiMix: Scalable and Distributed Approaches for Latency Optimization in Modern Mixnets,
  Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), 2026.
  Paper · BibTeX

• M. Rahimi,
  DP-Mix: Differentially Private Routing in Mix Networks,
  41st Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), IEEE, 2025.
  Paper · Slides · Presentation · BibTeX

• M. Rahimi,
  PARSAN-Mix: Packet-Aware Routing and Shuffling with Additional Noise for Latency Optimization in Mix Networks,
  23rd International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security (ACNS), 2025.
  🏆 Best Student Paper Award
  Paper · Slides · Presentation · BibTeX

• K. Baghery, N. Knapen, G. Nicolas, and M. Rahimi,
  Pre-constructed Publicly Verifiable Secret Sharing and Applications,
  23rd International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security (ACNS), 2025.
  Paper · Slides · BibTeX

• M. Rahimi, P. Kumar, and C. Díaz,
  LAMP: Lightweight Approaches for Latency Minimization in Mixnets with Practical Deployment Considerations,
  Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), 2025.
  Paper · Slides · Presentation · BibTeX

• M. Rahimi, P. Kumar, and C. Díaz,
  LARMix: Latency-Aware Routing in Mix Networks,
  Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), 2024.
  Paper · Slides · Presentation · BibTeX

• M. Rahimi,
  LARMix++: Latency-Aware Routing in Mix Networks with Free Routes Topology,
  23rd International Conference on Cryptology and Network Security (CANS), 2024.
  ⭐ Shortlisted for Best Paper
  Paper · Slides · Presentation · BibTeX

• M. Rahimi,
  CLAM: Client-Aware Routing in Mix Networks,
  Information Hiding and Multimedia Security (IHMMSec), 2024. Paper · Slides · BibTeX

• M. Rahimi,
  MALARIA: Management of Low-Latency Routing Impact on Mix Network Anonymity,
  International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA), 2024. Paper · Slides · BibTeX

• M. Rahimi,
  MOCHA: Mixnet Optimization Considering Honest Client Anonymity,
  Information Hiding and Multimedia Security (IHMMSec), 2025. Paper · Slides · Presentation · BibTeX

Journal Publications

• K. Baghery, N. G. Bardeh, S. Khazaei, and M. Rahimi,
  On Round-Optimal Computational VSS,
  IACR Communications in Cryptology (CiC), 2025.
  Paper · BibTeX

Talks & Presentations

1. LARMix: Latency-Aware Routing in Mix Networks, NDSS 2024
   Slides · Presentation

2. CLAM: Client-Aware Routing in Mix Networks, IHMMSec 2024
   Slides

3. LARMix++: Latency-Aware Routing in Mix Networks with Free Routes Topology, CANS 2024
   Slides · Presentation

4. Low-Latency Routing in Mix Networks, University of Cambridge
   Presentation

5. MALARIA: Management of Low-Latency Routing Impact on Mix Network Anonymity, NCA 2024
   Slides

6. LAMP: Lightweight Approaches for Latency Minimization in Mixnets, NDSS 2025
   Slides · Presentation

7. MOCHA: Mixnet Optimization Considering Honest Client Anonymity, IHMMSec 2025
   Slides · Presentation

8. PARSAN-Mix, ACNS 2025
   Slides · Presentation

9. DP-Mix: Differentially Private Routing in Mix Networks, ACSAC 2025
   Slides · Presentation

Teaching & Supervision

Master’s Thesis Supervision (Advanced Master of Cybersecurity, KU Leuven)

• Noah Knapen (2023–2024)
• Dheeray Kumar Suryakari (2024–2025)
• Louis Gregg (2024–2025)
• Emre Tosun (2025–2026)
• Nicolas Sarabia Sauquillo (2025–2026)

PhD Supervision

• Daily supervision of Heng Zhang (2025–2026)
• Daily supervision of Pablo Sánchez (2026–2027)

Internship Supervision

• Alexis Cao, Summer 2025
• Amir Hossein Ravan Nakhjavani, Summer 2026

Teaching

• Lecturer, Advanced Privacy, COSIC, KU Leuven (Winters 2023–2026)

Honors & Awards

• Recipient of a 3-year FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship (2026)
• Graduated with a PhD summa cum laude, with the congratulations of the Board of Examiners (2026)
• Best Student Paper Award, ACNS 2025
• Best Paper Shortlist, CANS 2024
• Ranked 1st, MSc, Sharif University of Technology (2020)
• Member, Iran National Elites Foundation (2018)

• Ranked 1st, BSc, K. N. Toosi University of Technology (2017)

• Ranked among the top 0.8% in Iran’s National University Entrance Exam for Undergraduate Studies, among more than 223,000 students (2014)

Academic Service

• 2026: USENIX Security ‘27, Euro S&P ‘27, PETs ‘27 (External Reviewer), IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM)

• 2025: IMPACT 2025 (co-located with NDSS 2025), ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM)

• 2024: Session Chair, CANS 2024, Cambridge

Invited Talks & Lectures

• Invited Lecturer: Advanced Privacy Course, COSIC, KU Leuven (Winter 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026).
• Talk: “Improved Performance and Security in Anonymous Communication Systems,” Amity Institute of Information Technology (AIIT). July, 2025.
• Seminar: “Latency-Aware Routing in Mix Networks,” Security Group, Computer Science Department, University of Cambridge. September, 2024.