Professor Carol Oliver

Prof Carol Oliver is a nationally and internationally recognised Education-Focused academic teaching evidence-based science communication and astrobiology (the search for life elsewhere in the universe). She specialises in online learning with a teaching philosophy of education through exploration in learning and teaching, and assessment practices. She is an associate director of the iCinema Research Centre, a member of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology and the Earth and Sustainability Sciences Research Centre, the latter in the School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences.

She pioneered the first astrobiology-related laptop-delivered immersive Virtual Field Trip with NASA Learning Technologies and, in 2021, inspired the formation of a group of academics, learning designers and developers to make the first academic-friendly VFT immersive authoring available to all at UNSW. The Teaching and Learning Immersive Authoring (TALIA) allows academics and students to make their VFTs without training. Carol has created a suite of VFTs for her astrobiology courses, several of which were developed in collaboration with the University of Auckland and Georgia State University. She also engages in a virtual exchange between GSU and UNSW astrobiology students. She is now establishing the use of the VFT technology in courses in the School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences. Examples of the use of VFT technology to prepare students for a real field trip to the Fowlers Gap Arid Research Station in western NSW, a Riversleigh research area exhibition in the UNSW library, and in introducing students to biodiversity areas in Sydney. Her Mars VFT will be part of a UNSW Library exhibition in June and July, 2026.

Carol's teaching excellence is held in high esteem internationally (Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, 2021) and within UNSW (Fellow of the Scientia Education Academy as one of UNSW's top 40 educators (2022),  gaining the Australian Awards for University Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2023) and the Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence (2022). Carol initiated, designed, and developed four fully online elective courses (BEES6800 The Science of Science Communication; BEES6741 Astrobiology: Life in the Universe; BEES2680 Introduction to Science Communication (SCIF1680 from 2026); and BEES2741 Introduction to Astrobiology). She has completed eight PhDs and two Honours candidates. She also teaches storytelling to incoming postgraduate students in SCIF7200 and has advised on the STEMM Champions 2026 workshops, one of which she will lead later in the year.

She is an elected member of the International Academy of Astronautics and co-chairs its Permanent SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Committee and its Post-Detection Task Group. She is also an international research associate of the SETIHub at the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland. In addition, Carol was a member of the Science Organising Committee for the IAU/Kavli Foundation symposium "(Toward) Discovery of Life Beyond Earth and its Impact" held at the University of Durham, UK, 15-19 April 2024, and an invited speaker and co-editor of the conference proceedings published in early 2026.

She co-leads the redevelopment of the 2010 international SETI Post-Detection Protocols, which guide SETI researchers on handling official and public interactions in the event of the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence. The new protocols were accepted by the International Academy of Astronautics in early 2026 and are now being submitted to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space for review. 

Carol engages with the media and contributes to The Conversation, the most recent of which was on international space law in January 2024. She engages with education outreach and, in March 2026, began advising the Victorian Space Science Education Centre on measuring its impact on school students.