Ria Olivier is prinicpal investigator, digital archivist and manager of the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa(ALSA) project funded by the National Research Foundation within the Department of Science and Innovation. ALSA is based in the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University. Her academic and working career began in Information Sciences, with specific focus on information the digital era. She specialised in the management of informtion and this brought her to the SA National Antarctic Programme and Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in 2012. She is a member of the Standing committees on Humanities and Social Sciences and Antarctic Data Management within SCAR and a founder member of the polar museum network. Her role is to preserve and promote the legacy of SA in the Antarctic region and achieve it by maintaining a digital repository and the SANAP and ALSA websites. Her activities include presentations, publications, training and lectures. 

It was always her dream to visit the southernmost continent and was able to do so during the 2019 takeover at SANAE iV. She has been to all five Antarctic Gateway countries and cities and travelled to all 7 continents. Her passion is making information available, to create a knowledgeable nation and simultaneously create pride within all South Africans for our accomplishments in the Antarctic region.

She has been awarded the APECS International Mentorship Award and featured in #100 Women in Polar Science.