From Dean’s office

In July 2022, our alma mater and academic stronghold, the Faculty of Occupational Safety of the University of Nis, completed fifty years of operation as an independent institution of higher education. If it were a person, many would probably comment that she or he is in her/his best years, when professional capacities and knowledge are happily combined with life experience and grounded self-confidence.

Today, the Faculty gathers a multidisciplinary team of researchers and experts from various fields of occupational safety, fire protection, environmental protection and related areas. Safety engineering, being a broad interdisciplinary field, records a constant growth in scope and content. In addition to traditional areas of safety engineering, a number of new areas, such as emergency management, risk management and environmental quality management, are capturing the attention of our researchers.

It would be unusual not to begin a review of Faculty activities for the 2021/22 year, with reflection on the pandemic which, as a new phenomenon, has affected all areas of life and work. The fact is that this year we have faced new risks and challenges, both in everyday life and in research, as well as in the teaching process. Circumstances made the teaching and scientific gatherings move to the virtual space, and for most of the year, we typically kept in touch with our colleagues and associates through various communication platforms. Many researches have been limited in scope and content due to the application of new security measures and restricted mobility. This situation, however, did not prevent our teachers, associates, and researchers from continuing working in such circumstances and thus make the research spirit triumph over new challenges.

Thanks to such an attitude, the faculty still has new perspectives and opportunities for further development in accordance with the goals of the new management team. The Faculty, as a leading institution in its field, will continue to study the problems of occupational and environmental safety in their broadest sense, giving researchers from different fields the opportunity to initiate further investigation in their areas of competence. We are convinced that both professionals and the general public will benefit from the commitment of our scholars, as well as our students in their future professional environments. 

Srđan Glišović, 
Dean of the Faculty of Occupational Safety in Nis