Oliver was born and grew up in the UK, he obtained his integrated masters degree (MChem) in Chemistry in 2018, which included research projects with Dr. George Kostakis, Prof. Geoff Cloke (FRS), and Prof. Richard Layfield. His masters project with Prof. Cloke concerned the synthesis and reactivity of uranium phenoxide complexes. He subsequently moved to the University of Oxford for his DPhil in Inorganic Chemistry in the groups of Prof. Jose Goicoechea and Prof. Andy Weller. This project, funded through an iCASE award with Shell, involved the development of the first Zintl cluster based homogeneous catalysts. During this time, he won the EPSRC doctoral prize, which funded a postdoctoral position in Oxford to continue the project in new directions. In 2022, Oliver moved to Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow, joining the group of Prof. Sjoerd Harder at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. This project targeted M(0) synthons of the alkaline earth metals, using metal vapour synthesis to directly react the metals and ligands together, which resulted in the direct synthesis of a barium(0) synthon. In late 2024, he moved to the Institute of Nanotechnology, KIT, as a VCI Liebig fellow to found his junior research group. His current research interests involve the development of chemical technologies, with or for organometallic compounds containing metals across the periodic table.
Since 2024: Junior Research Group Leader, INT, KIT, DE
2022-2024: Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE
2022: EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow, University of Oxford, UK
2018-2022: DPhil Inorganic Chemistry, Wadham College, University of Oxford, UK
2014-2018: MChem Chemistry, University of Sussex, UK