Professor Slobodan Djordjevic

Slobodan is Professor of Hydraulic Engineering, Deputy Head of Engineering and Co-Director of the Centre for Water Systems, which he joined in 2002. At Exeter he served as the Director of Postgraduate Studies, Director of Education for Engineering, elected member of the University Senate, and most recently as the inaugural Associate Dean (International and Development) in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences. He received degrees in Civil Engineering from University of Belgrade, where he worked for fifteen years. Slobodan has held visiting positions at the Technical University of Munich, The University of West Indies in Barbados and the Florida State University in Tallahassee. He taught on over twenty modules on various undergraduate, postgraduate and specialist courses.

Slobodan has worked extensively on the development and application of methodologies and tools for simulation of urban flooding, modelling of drainage networks and assessment of various direct and indirect impacts of flooding in the context of climate change and urban development. His other areas of expertise include river and coastal engineering, cascading effects between water, waste, energy, transportation and other infrastructure systems, tidal energy extraction, impacts of dams, scour around bridge piers, and water quality modelling. He also worked on projects on drought risk management, nature-based solutions, ventilation of tunnels, and water-food-energy nexus.

Slobodan has been awarded research grants worth £14m for projects worldwide and published 10 book chapters and 120 peer-reviewed journal papers (with 200+ different co-authors, in 40 different journals). He led EU FP7 CORFU consortium and in that capacity organised and co-chaired the International Conference of Flood Resilience: Experiences in Asia and Europe, held in Exeter. He is an Editor of Journal of Flood Risk Management.

Current research grants (old projects are shown on CWS):

• WATERLINE – Transforming Advanced Water Skilling through the Creation of a Network of Extended-reality Water Emulative Centres (Horizon Europe, 2022-2025)
• WATERVERSE – Water Data Management Ecosystem for Water Data Spaces (Horizon Europe, 2022-2025)
• ARSINOE – Climate-resilient regions through systemic solutions and innovations (EU H2020, 2021-2025)
• ENFORCE – Empower citizens to join forces with public authorities in protecting the environment (Horizon Europe, 2024-2028)
• ULTIMATE – Industry water-utility symbIosis for a smarter water society (H2020, 2020-2024)

Current PhD students – project title, funding body, co-supervisor:

• Jessica Holland – Machine learning predictive maintenance for sustainable urban drainage, QUEX, G. Tabor, D. Batstone & D. Jarman
• Babak Zolghadr-Asli – Maximising the benefits of desalinated seawater supply networks for agricultural sustainability, QUEX, N. McIntyre, R. Farmani & L. Pagliero  
• Alex Chatzistefanou – Flood risk and resilience assessment of regional interdependent critical infrastructure networks, ERC, D.Savic, A. Chen & Lydia Vamvakeridou-Lyroudia
• Beatriz Gutierrez Caloir – Climate change risks to provision of urban water infrastructure, ERC, M. Blokker, D. Savic & M. Collins
• Agung Hari Saputra – A surrogate deep learning approach for spatiotemporal flood prediction based on 2D hydrodynamic modelling, ISPF, A. Chen
• to be appointed (see the scholarship advert below) – Digital twin for climate resilience solutions, IHE Delft, Peter Melville-Shreeve & Zoran Vojinovic

Fully funded PhD Scholarship: advert details (application deadline 30 June 2025).

Applications for PhD study are very welcome. Candidates – including those who have secured funding or intend to apply for scholarships – are encouraged to discuss ideas prior to submitting the application, by emailing an outline research proposal and the CV to s.djordjevic@exeter.ac.uk.

Slobodan playing music with his sons can be seen here. Highlights from Slobodan's Piano Recital after his Inaugural lecture can be viewed here. The complete 2017 gig with the Jazz Flood Band is available here. Jazz Flood live performance at the Nišville 2018 Jazz Festival can be seen h e r e . Slobodan's more recent music videos can be accessed here and here.