I do recommend Gentoo (haven't tried Funtoo) for the academically inclined. It's a beast to maintain, but you'll soon find yourself at ease with configuring and compiling your own kernel, configuring your packages and even making some yourself.
It isn't as hard as people make it out to be - if you gradually push your boundaries. In particular, it's good if you already use Arch.
I wonder what happened to Tails - the one that started it all.