We are very proud that NIST has selected our design, Rijndael, for proposal as the Advanced Encryption Standard. We want to thank NIST for taking the AES initiative and creating a unique opportunity for cryptographers in academia and industry all over the world to contribute to the new standard. The public AES process has drawn enormous attention to the research field of symmetric cryptography.

Moreover, we want to congratulate NIST for the open and transparent way in which the selection process was conducted. We thank the designers of the other candidates, cryptographers, programmers and all other people who contributed in a cooperative atmosphere to this effort in general, and in particular those who helped to bring attention to the strong points of Rijndael.

We also want to thank Miles Smid and Jim Foti of the NIST Information Technology Laboratory for giving assistance whenever required.