Associate Professor Dr. Nenad T. Fric, vice-dean for education at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Belgrade, participates in the RES SERBIA 2024 conference held on September 23rd and 24th in Vrdnik.
He was born in Zrenjanin in 1979, where he finished elementary school and high school. He graduated from the Department of Structural Engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Belgrade in 2004, which made him the fourth generation of builders in the family. In 2015, he defended his doctoral dissertation at the same university.
After graduation, he was employed in the company “Montena d.o.o” Belgrade, where he worked as a designer of steel structures. He was employed at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in 2006, and after enrolling in doctoral studies in 2007, he was elected to the title of assistant for the narrow scientific field of Metal Structures. He was appointed Assistant Professor in the same field in 2015.
He was first elected to the position of Vice-Dean for Education at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Belgrade in 2018, and then in 2021, for which he attributes the credit to the Dean’s Collegium, which selflessly takes over part of its obligations. He actively participates in the implementation of the accreditation cycle of the faculty, in which the change of the study model has been made, as well as systemic changes and improvement of curricula. The focus of his engagement was on the modernization of studies, increasing their efficiency, but also improving the study conditions of students and the working conditions of teachers and associates.
He is a co-author of the proposal of the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Education Development Strategy from 2020 to 2027, which was developed by the University of Belgrade for the needs of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development.
Since 2007, he has been actively participating in teaching in the field of Metal Structures at the Faculty of Civil Engineering. At the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade, since 2018, he has been engaged as a lecturer at courses for international welding engineers. As a mentor, he has participated in the preparation of more than 40 graduate and master’s theses. He always repeats to his students that formal education gives us the opportunity to choose.
In his scientific research work, he deals with the problems of stability and load-bearing capacity of metal structures, and above all the load-bearing capacity of connections. He is a co-author of more than 40 scientific papers in the field of metal structures, which have been published in journals and at conferences in the country and abroad.
In addition to scientific research and teaching, he is also actively engaged in professional work. He has participated in the implementation of more than 50 projects, expert opinions, technical controls, design and expert supervision and technical inspections. He successfully cooperates with a large number of construction companies that are an important participant in the process of modernization of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, which he considers his greatest business achievement. Jokingly, he says that he is a lobbyist for the Serbian construction industry, in whose potentials he sincerely believes based on personal experience and numerous implemented projects.
Since 2023, Nenad Fric has been the president of the Union of Civil Engineers of Serbia. He is a member of the Serbian Chamber of Engineers, the Society of Civil Designers of Serbia and the Society for the Advancement of Welding of Serbia. Nenad Fritz reads and writes English. He is married and the father of two children.