Oliver Zier earned two Bachelor’s degrees in physics and computer science from the University of Bayreuth in Germany. He also holds a Master’s degree in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics from the University of Munich. In 2023, under the advisory of Prof. Volker Springel. He completed his Ph.D in Physics from the University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. In 2023, Zier began working as a postdoc associate in the Vogelsberger Lab.

Oliver is interested in developing state-of-the-art numerical methods and applying them to astrophysical problems. He mostly works with the GADGET and AREPO codes, which he also continuously extends. During his PhD, he studied the small-scale physics of protoplanetary disks using the shearing box approximation. At MIT, he will optimize and port the radiative transfer solver to GPUs in AREPO, and collaborate with the THESAN team to study the evolution of the first galaxies. Additionally, he is also interested in addressing various astrophysical questions ranging from the internal dynamics of protoplanetary disks to the interstellar medium using his code extension to AREPO.