39 Facts About Daniel Funeriu

Daniel Petru Funeriu was born on 11 April 1971 and is a Romanian politician.

Daniel P Funeriu was born on April 11,1971, in Arad, his parents being teachers in Birchis.

Daniel Funeriu's father is Ionel Funeriu, and his mother Maria Funeriu, a Romanian language teacher.

Daniel Funeriu spent the first years of his life with his parents and maternal grandfather in Savarsin, and at the age of two the family moved to Timisoara, his father becoming a researcher at the Romanian Academy, and his mother an assistant professor at the University of Timisoara.

Daniel Funeriu's father is a reputed philologist, his major achievement being a fundamental revision of the theory of Romanian versification.

Daniel Funeriu practiced gymnastics, athletics and football and had good grades in science.

Daniel Funeriu attended the elite Classes Preparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles course at Lycee Kleber in Strasbourg, and in 1991 he was admitted to the European Higher Institute of Chemistry of Strasbourg and became, in 1992, a laboratory worker in Professor Lehn's laboratory, where he worked on his first research project.

Daniel Funeriu obtained the "Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies" in organic and supramolecular chemistry at the Universite de Strasbourg and began his doctoral studies in Professor Lehn's laboratory.

Daniel Funeriu chose the Technical University of Munich, where he was part of the team that conceived the university's candidacy for the German government's newly launched Exzellenzinitiative.

Daniel Funeriu is married to Sandra Daniel Funeriu, a French citizen, whom he met at a party in Strasbourg in 1994 and with whom he has two children.

From December 2008 to July 2009, Daniel Funeriu represented Romania in the European Parliament, sitting for the Democratic Liberal Party.

Daniel Funeriu attracted the attention of the Romanian press and, in 2007 he became vice-president of the Presidential Commission for the analysis and elaboration of policies in the fields of education, appointed by President Traian Basescu.

Daniel Funeriu was invited to run in the European Parliament elections on behalf of the Liberal Democratic Party and, in January 2009, he became an MEP in the European People's Party group.

Daniel Funeriu was appointed Minister of Education, Research, Youth and Sports in the Lucian Croitoru government, which was rejected by Parliament.

Daniel Funeriu participated in President Basescu's campaign in 2009, and became minister of education, research, youth and sports with the support of Basescu, Mircea Miclea, and the academic world.

In 2012, in light of the resignation of the Boc Government, Daniel Funeriu was appointed presidential advisor for education and research.

Daniel Funeriu did not win the internal elections and withdrew from active politics, although enjoying significant media visibility due to his pertinent and razor-sharp positions on education and general political directions of the country.

In 2014, following a series of checks started by himself during his ministerial position, the "Microsoft scandal" broke out, in which Daniel Funeriu was declared innocent by prosecutors after 3 years of checks in the criminal prosecution procedure.

Daniel Funeriu was the only one of the 9 ministers who was not criminally prosecuted.

Daniel Funeriu returned for a short period to research, collaborating with Professor Nicolas Giuseppone, and was appointed High Advisor of the European Union to the Government of the Republic of Moldova in 2017, supporting the Republic of Moldova in the process of implementing the reforms necessary for accession to the European Union.

Daniel Funeriu contributed, in collaboration with Ivan Huc, to the beginning of the field of dynamic combinatorial chemistry, after which, at Scripps, he developed a method of self-assembly of peptides based on the sterically directed hydrophobic interaction of phenylalanine residues.

Daniel Funeriu has developed chemical methods for immobilizing non-adherent cells on solid substrates and has participated in research that has identified twinfyllin-2 as an essential gene in the growth of neurites in SH-SY5Y cells.

Daniel Funeriu was the mentor of successful chemists, including Mihaela Matache, associate professor at the University of Bucharest, Niculina Hadade, professor at Babes-Bolyai University, Doru Roiban, Cristian Dobrota, and participated in the revival of organic chemistry in Romania.

Daniel Funeriu successively held the position of Member of the European Parliament, Minister of Education, Research, Youth and Sport and Presidential Advisor with the rank of Minister.

The press reported that Daniel Funeriu was at the origin of the discovery and publication in Nature of the evidence of plagiarism of Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

Daniel Funeriu did neither confirm nor deny the information, but Ponta considered him the main author of the accusation of plagiarism, later confirmed by CNATDCU.

Daniel Funeriu introduced major reforms in research: he introduced the exclusively international evaluation of research projects and the allocation of funds according to internationally relevant performance, he built 20 new research institutes with European funds and started the steps to build in Romania, in Magurele, the Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics infrastructure under the scientific coordination of Nobel laureate Gerard Mourou and professor Nicolae Zamfir.

In 2017, Daniel Funeriu started working within a mission of the European Union aimed at assisting the Republic of Moldova on its road to European Union integration.

Daniel Funeriu recently announced his intentions to be a candidate for the Romanian presidential elections.

In 2024, Daniel Funeriu organized in Resita one of the few elite mathematics camps in Europe, APEXMATHS in which 50 very high-level students from the US, Canada, South Korea, France, Italy, Israel, Moldova, Ukraine, and Romania participated.

Daniel Funeriu's measures led to huge financial losses for the corrupt structures in education.

Antena 3 claimed that they were in possession of a document proving that Daniel Funeriu did not obtain the baccalaureate in France in 1988.

Daniel Funeriu proved that that alleged document was in fact the list of 2011 graduates from Alsace in which, by electronic means, his name was inserted.

In reality Daniel Funeriu obtained his baccalaureate just 9 months after arriving in France, with good enough school results to be admitted to the very selective course of "Classes Prepa".

Daniel Funeriu suffered numerous personal attacks, being called"arrogant" because of his trenchant and clear style of expressing the reforms he undertook.

Daniel Funeriu is a self-declared ordoliberal, with positions that have gradually become moderately conservative.

The extreme nationalist and ultraconservative part of the political spectrum accuses Daniel Funeriu of being too progressive because he supported vaccination campaigns against cervical cancer.

Daniel Funeriu has focused on issues related to education, state reforms, drawing attention to the danger of populism and social fragmentation, propagating for social cohesion and gathering the nation around traditional values.

Daniel Funeriu has warned on multiple occasions about the danger of the growth of extremist parties, being an advocate of moderation.