Oliver, born 1970 in Berlin, Swiss citizen, is Full Professor of Aerospace Medicine, Director of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at the University of Zurich and Director of the Innovation Cluster Space and Aviation of the University of Zurich (UZH Hub). He is a Physician and Biochemist, specialized in Anatomy, Cell Biology, Immunology and Aerospace Medicine. He also has a post-graduate diploma in Theology from the Pontifical Lateran University (Rome/Vatican). He is Ambassador of the Greater Zurich Area and enthusiastically committed to innovation in space, actively supports entrepreneurship and public-private partnerships.

He is an Honorary Professor of Space Medicine (EAH Jena, Germany), Professor of Space Biotechnology (University of Magdeburg, Germany) and BIT Adjunct Professor (Beijing Institute of Technology, BIT, China), a Professor of Aerospace Medicine at UFL, Liechtenstein, elected Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics, President of the German Society for Aerospace Medicine, President of the Swiss SkyLab Foundation and initiator and leader of the Swiss Parabolic Flight program.

He is recipient of several national and international research and teaching awards and has 20 years of experience as scientific leader of parabolic flight, suborbital ballistic rocket and International Space Station (ISS) missions in the ESA and NASA Space Life Sciences research program. He is a leader of coordinated multi-platform and multi-cell-type approaches aiming for understanding the response and adaptation of human cells in altered. Oliver’s accumulated mission experience is 17 parabolic flight missions, 9 suborbital missions and 10 orbital missions. Oliver has flown more than 1200 parabolas and was more than 7 hours in microgravity in total. In the year 2023, he was awarded with the International Academy of Astronautics Award for the Life Sciences, considered the world's highest honor bestowed in the field of space life sciences.