[3] Rahman completed his Ph.D. on graph drawing algorithms under the supervision of Dr. Takao Nishizeki of Tohoku University, Japan in 1999.

He also worked as a JSPS postdoctoral fellow and as an associate professor in Tohoku University during the period 2001–2004.

Together with Dr. Takao Nishizeki, Rahman wrote a graduate textbook Planar Graph Drawing,[2] which was published by World Scientific in 2004.

In 2007, with the support from Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS), Rahman played the leading role in initiating and establishing the International Workshop on Algorithms and Computation (WALCOM).

[9] Rahman has also received Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS) Gold Medal 2003 in the junior group,[10] and University Grants Commission Award 2004.