And in January next year, the University of Otago second-year physics student will get that boost when she rubs shoulders with Nobel laureates at the Global Young Scientist Summit (GYSS) in Singapore.
"They’re like scientific royalty. It will be amazing to meet them face to face.
"These are the kind of people that you look up to, but you don’t see their face. You just see their names and all the research and publications they’ve done."
Being 19 and at the very beginning of her career in science, she said she would find inspiration in hearing how they had gone through life, accomplishing all the things they had worked towards.
It would help shape her future, she said.
"Anything I can get from these people will be gold."
Over the past two years, Miss Dean has been a Discovery Scholar through the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.
She hoped to eventually become a research scientist — either in quantum mechanics or climate modelling.
Miss Dean will be joined at the summit by University of Otago physics PhD candidate Mohsin Ijaz.
While he, too, was excited about meeting Nobel prize-winners, he was also looking forward to meeting other like-minded young scientists and making connections with world-class researchers in his field.
He hoped that through sharing his work at the summit, others may have some useful insights to offer, and vice-versa.
The GYSS received more than 1500 nominations from more than 100 institutions around the world, but just 350 applicants from about 40 countries have been selected to attend the event.
