Jessie McKenzie Lineham (20), of Invercargill, died after the Honda she was driving collided with a Holden driven by a 46-year-old man, also of Invercargill, about noon on Saturday.
The collision occurred on a stretch of State Highway 93, about 15km east of Mataura, and Miss Lineham died at the scene.
A former James Hargest College pupil, she was part-way through a degree in nutrition and environmental science at the University of Otago in Dunedin.
In 2006, while still a pupil at James Hargest, Miss Lineham won a Dexcel Dairy Future Scholarship Award for her project on the effectiveness of riparian zones in dairy farming.
The scholarship covered one year of undergraduate study at a New Zealand university.
Two years later, in 2008, she received a Gold Crest Award, to encourage innovation and creativity in problem solving, for her three-year project investigating the effects of riparian planting on a farm stream.
Miss Lineham's studies took her to Beijing, China, where she presented her findings at a science fair.
Miss Lineham's father, Craig, told the Southland Times his daughter's work had also earned her North & South magazine's Young New Zealander of the Year award.
Mr Lineham said his daughter was making a surprise trip home to visit when the crash happened, the newspaper reported.
"She never made it."
The 46-year-old driver of the Holden was in a satisfactory condition after being taken to Southland Hospital, while his two children - an 8-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl - were flown to Dunedin Hospital with serious injuries.
