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Monday, 22 August 2022

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In addition to her interest in climate on this planet, Maia is also curious about what lies beyond earth's atmosphere.

“To my young mind, there was no difference in our ancestors traversing the ocean using stars, and our descendants traversing space using the same stars.”

Maia Dean is combining her love for physics, chemistry and math to carve out a path for herself and hopefully her community, too.

The second-year Bachelor of Science student was born and raised in Ōtepoti but her family hail from Rarotonga and Fiji. As a result, she has a special interest in how her chosen fields can impact these particular nations.

“Climate change is something that interests me, as it has potential devastating effects on Aotearoa and the Pacific Islands.”

In addition to her interest in climate on this planet, Maia is also curious about what lies beyond earth's atmosphere.

“Another thing that fascinates me is space exploration, I love space. I'm interested in Mars, can we turn it into habitable land? Climate change of course is the big issue, but looking past that for a moment, there are so many huge things further on than that.”

Coming from a family of teachers, entrepreneurs and scientists, she was always confident her journey would be a scientific one.

“My mum was science medical laboratory scientist, both my grandparents were teachers and principals. My dad is a software engineer. My family have always encouraged me to pursue what interests me and challenged me to question ideas.”

Maia is enjoying combining all three of her chosen subjects and says together, they make sense. After her undergraduate studies, she plans to take on postgrad, saying “there is still so much to learn”.

“My aim is to have a strong foundation in these subjects so that I can contribute to solving the future challenges of our world.”

Kōrero by Internal Communications Adviser Chelsea McRae

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