New was born in Sydney in 1984. She represented Australia at the International Chemistry Olympiad in 2000 and 2001, winning bronze and gold medals respectively, and graduated from James Ruse Agricultural High School with a UAI of 100. She earned a bachelors degree in chemistry at the University of Sydney in 2005, where she completed her masters degree in 2006 with Professor Trevor Hambley. During her graduate studies she worked on fluorescent tags to monitor the cellular uptake and metabolism of anti-tumor complexes. New completed her doctoral studies at Durham University working with David Parker, graduating in 2010. Her work looked at the cellular behaviour of lanthanide complexes.