He obtained his bachelor's in Engineering Physics and a master's in Computer Science, both from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden, and his PhD in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2006. Rafael's research interests are in the field of Cryptography and its interplay with Computational Complexity and Game Theory. He is a recipient of the NSF Career Award, the AFOSR Young Investigator Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, the Microsoft Faculty Award, and the Wallenberg Academy Fellowship.