Prof Carol Oliver is a nationally and internationally recognised award-winning education-focused academic with research interests in science communication and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. She is one of four architects of the International Academy of Astronautics SETI Post-Detection Protocols, which guide the international SETI community on steps to take if a possible techno-signature is detected, including communicating the discovery to public audiences. 

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 is interested in inclusive education, the challenges of AI, and using virtual worlds for reimagined secure assessment. She pioneered the first astrobiology-related laptop-delivered immersive Virtual Field Trip with NASA Learning Technologies in 2007 and helped establish VFTs at Arizona State University 2008-2010. In 2016, she helped establish VFT technology at UNSW. In 2020, she inspired the formation of a group of academics, learning designers and developers to make the first academic-friendly VFT immersive authoring tool available to all at UNSW. The Teaching and Learning Immersive Authoring (TALIA) platform allows academics and students to create VFTs without training, and today, UNSW has more than 40 VFT projects. Carol also created a suite of VFTs as a secure online assessment for her astrobiology courses, several of which were developed in collaboration with the University of Auckland and Georgia State University. She also collaborates with Chanakya University in India, the University of Chicago, UC Davis, and the Victorian Space Science Education Centre.

Carol introduced VFT technology in several School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences courses, including for secure online assessment. Examples include using VFT technology to prepare students for a real field trip to the Fowlers Gap Arid Research Station in western NSW, a New Zealand hot springs, and a Pilbara Early Life VFT in an astrobiology course, as well as an orientation VFT to the BEES research area at Smith's Lake in northern NSW. In addition, she has developed several exploratory VFTs including a "Walking on Mars" Virtual Reality experience as part of a UNSW Library exhibition in June-September 2026. The VR experience was also a National Science Week activity at UNSW, where students could also hold and examine a 3.48 billion-year-old stromatolite from the Pilbara in Western Australia, where other examples of the earliest convincing evidence of life on Earth are found.

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, 2026); and BEES2741 Introduction to Astrobiology). All her courses aimed to support inclusive education, including the use of Universal Design for Learning and in September, 2026, was a panel member for UNSW's Diversity Festival. Carol also raised and co-chaired two of UNSW's largest Education-Focused Communities of Practice: the Digital, Online Learning and Innovation CoP and the AI CoP. She regularly mentors academics seeking career development and promotion. She also teaches storytelling and what matters to audiences to incoming postgraduate students in SCIF7200 and in August 2026, gave two half-day STEMM Champions 2026 workshops, one for PhD students and the other for staff.

She has completed eight PhDs and two Honours candidates, and examined three PhD theses. She is regulary asked to review journal articles, and is a reviewer for the Australian Awards for University Teaching as well as the Australian Research Council. 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 has a Google Scholar H-index of 9 and a grant record exceeding $6.5m, the majority of it for outreach and as the Lead Investigator.

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 the co-chair of the Communications and Outreach Working Group for the SETI Post-Detection Hub at the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland.

Carol engages with the media and contributes to The Conversation, most recently on why aliens are not visiting us (June, 2026), which acquired 168,000 reads, attracted media in Australia, the UK, and the US, and a total of more than 40 comment.