The paper “A Modular Analysis of the Fujisaki-Okamoto Transformation” (co-authored with Dennis Hofheinz, ETH Zurich (formerly Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), and Kathrin Hövelmanns, Eindhoven University of Technology (formerly Ruhr University Bochum)) was published in 2017 and awarded with the 2025 Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC) Test of Time Award.
On Thursday, December 4, 2025, the award committee presented the award in Aarhus, Denmark, with the following statement: “For modular designs of secure key encapsulation mechanisms with tight bounds in both classical and quantum settings, enabling the KEM constructions used in the NIST PQC standard.” In their scientific work, the researchers presented a modular toolset that converts weakly secure public-key encryption methods into strongly secure methods – even in a post-quantum environment.
Test of Time Award honors influential and enduring works
The TCC Test of Time Award annually honors outstanding works that have had a lasting impact on theoretical cryptography and are at least eight years old.
The award is presented at the Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC), which has been held worldwide since 2004. It focuses on scientific work used to define and solve cryptographic problems.
Guide to the NIST Post-Quantum Competition
The analysis of the Fujisaki-Okamoto transformation published in the paper proved to be groundbreaking for the NIST post-quantum competition. A total of two of the four standardization procedures selected in 2022, CRYSTALS-KYBER and CRYSTALIS-DILITHIUM, were co-developed by Eike Kiltz and are based, among other things, on the KEM construction honored here. They are already protecting data worldwide from the future challenges posed by quantum computers.
Original Publication
A Modular Analysis of the Fujisaki-Okamoto Transformation. Hofheinz, Hövelmanns, Kiltz. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Ruhr University Bochum.
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