Marija Drobnjaković is a Senior Research Associate at the Geographical Institute „Jovan Cvijić“ Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA), within the Department of Spatial Planning. Her expertise encompasses the geography of settlements and rural studies. Her research is primarily focused on the typology of rural areas, rural planning, and urban–rural linkages, with particular emphasis on the identification of central settlements in rural areas, as well as the analysis and evaluation of the capacities of rural areas. She applies a range of methodological approaches, including qualitative, statistical and mathematical, and spatial methods, with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the processes taking place in rural areas and within settlement networks. Her most significant scientific contributions are in the fields of rural geography, settlement typologies, and rural planning, as well as in the study of the determinants shaping the development of settlement networks; depopulation and territorial cohesion; functional relations and linkages within settlement networks; and the transformation and restructuring of rural areas. Research fields: rural geography; spatial planning; settlement networks (spatial organization, settlement hierarchy, functional relations).