Nicușor Dan, President of the Romanian Republic and French alumni
"Nicușor Dan embodies the success of a Franco-Romanian academic career". This is how Sorbonne Paris Nord University congratulates Romania's newly elected president on May 18. Nicușor Dan is indeed an international alumnus who spent part of his studies in France. His brilliant studies led him to win the gold medal twice, with an exceptional score, at the International Mathematics Olympiad.
On May 18, 2025, Nicușor Dan won the Romanian presidential election with almost 54% of the vote. Born in 1969, Nicușor Dan distinguished himself early on as a "mathematical prodigy", as the Sorbonne Paris Nord University points out. Indeed, it was mathematics that formed the core of his career as a renowned researcher and scientist, before embarking on and succeeding in a career as a politician.
From ENS Paris to Sorbonne Paris Nord
Born to a blue-collar father and an accountant mother, Nicușor Dan developed a passion for the discipline at an early age. As early as middle school, he declares in his profession of faith in the presidential election, "I discovered my passion for mathematics and, with the help of my teachers, I concentrated on it". And it was, of course, mathematics that he went on to study at the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Bucharest. In 1992, he chose France to continue his studies at the École normale supérieure - PSL.
As the School points out, Nicușor Dan was admitted to the famous ENS "troisième concours" in a foreign capacity in 1992. That year, the École normale supérieure had introduced a new formula for this competitive examination, "allowing French university and foreign students to compete without imposing a precise program".
After the ENS, he went on to study for a doctorate in mathematics at the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord (formerly Université Paris-XIII), with a thesis in fundamental mathematics, entitled "Green's currents and meromorphic extension", defended in 1998.During this period, he writes , "I began organizing meetings with Romanian students in Paris, during which we discussed what we could do to ensure that Romania took the right path as a country".
From ENS Bucharest to Bucharest City Hall
After completing his thesis in 1998, Nicușor Dan decided to return to Bucharest, "convinced [that I was] more needed in Romania", with this "desire to contribute to change" in the country. This political ambition did not prevent him from pursuing his research career, however, as he was one of the founders and the first administrative director (between 2000 and 2006) of the École normale supérieure de Bucarest, a school created on the model of the École normale supérieure in Paris, as part of the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy. The ENS Bucharest is considered one of Romania's top schools for "the elite of the exact sciences".
In 1998, however, he made his political debut by founding a youth association, "Jeunes pour l'action sociale" (Youth for Social Action), and then another more political association, "Sauvez Bucarest" (Save Bucharest), to combat real estate speculation. This led him to run for mayor of Bucharest in the 2012 local elections. But it wasn't until his third candidacy, in 2020, that he finally won the election. He then became mayor of Bucharest and was re-elected in 2024.
From Bucharest City Hall to the Presidency of Romania
In December 2024, Nicușor Dan announced his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election, following the cancellation of the 2024 ballot "against a backdrop of Russian interference in favor of the far-right candidate".
Presenting himself as an independent candidate, resolutely pro-European and a "fervent defender of Western democratic values", Nicușor Dan obtained 21% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election. This result enabled him to qualify for the second round against "nationalist and eurosceptic candidate George Simion", who came out on top with 40% of the vote. But in the second round, with a spectacular reversal of scores, it was Nicușor Dan who won with almost 54% of the vote. This makes him the second mayor of the capital to be elected president.
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