Vladica Cvetković, an academic and university professor, was born in 1964 in Aranđelovac. He graduated from the Faculty of Mining and Geology at the University of Belgrade in 1988, and earned his master's degree (1993) and doctorate (1997) at the same faculty. He was appointed as a full professor at the Faculty of Mining and Geology in 2008. From 2004 to 2006, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Salzburg, as a recipient of the "Lise Meitner" program scholarship. 

From 2006 to 2009, he served as Vice Dean, and from 2009 to 2012, as Dean of the Faculty of Mining and Geology. He was elected as a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2012, and as a full member in 2021. His research interests include petrology, volcanology, geochemistry, mineralogy, and their connection to ore deposit formation processes. He has published 67 papers in peer-reviewed journals (ORCID-0000-0002-5584-5188), which have been cited over 2500 times (Google Scholar; h-index 25). 

Under his leadership, two laboratories were established at the Faculty of Mining and Geology: one for electron microscopy (2009) and one for the study of fluid inclusions (2019). He has supervised 15 doctoral theses and served as a supervisor or committee member for doctoral defenses at several universities abroad. He is a member of the editorial boards of international scientific journals such as the "Swiss Journal of Geosciences," "Geologica Carpathica," and "Geologica Balcanica." He received a certificate from the editorial board of the journal "Lithos" (Elsevier) for being the first author of one of the 50 most cited papers from 2003 to 2007. He received the "Milan Milićević – Geological Engineer" Award (1997) and the Charter of the City of Aranđelovac for scientific work (2013). He is a member of the Serbian Geological Society and the Serbian Archaeological Society. From 2010 to 2021, he participated in evaluations for the European Research Council and the "Marie Skłodowska-Curie" program.

He served as the President of the Expert Body for Higher Education Reform in Serbia (2013‒2017 – HERE team) and as a member of the National Council for Higher Education of Serbia (2015‒2017). He has authored one book and three expert papers on higher education issues in Serbia, and has written over 50 articles in daily newspapers and weeklies, mainly focusing on the influence of education on the development of civil society in Serbia. 

He speaks English, Italian, and German.

He is married and has one son.