Dr. New received her Bachelors degree from Cornell University and her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was awarded the Distinguished Graduate Award.She was Chairman of Pediatrics at Weill Medical College of Cornell University from 1980 to 2002 and Founding Director of its Children's Clinical Research Center, where she also served as Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology from 1964 to 2002.Dr. Maria New is Professor of Pediatrics, Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, and Director of the Adrenal Steroid Disorders Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She is also serving as Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.Former president of the Endocrine Society, Dr. New has edited or co-edited 12 medical textbooks, published more than 600 peer-reviewed papers and served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

She has trained more than 100 young physician-scientists who have become chiefs of pediatric endocrinology and leaders in their field.Her research, clinical work and teaching have taken her around the world. In 2005 and 2006, she led genetics research expeditions to Siberia in collaboration with the School of Medicine, St. Petersburg University, Russia.Dr. New's contributions have been recognized by her being selected as one of the few pediatricians in the National Academy of Sciences. She has received numerous honors including: the Robert H. Williams Distinguished Leadership Award; the Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Clinical Investigator Award from the American Endocrine Society; the 1996 Dale Medal, the highest award given by the British Endocrine Society; and the 2003 Fred Conrad Koch Award, the highest award given by the American Endocrine Society.

In 2010, she received the Van Wyk Prize, the highest award given in pediatric endocrinology.She has conducted pioneering research in the area of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, a term used to describe a family of monogenic autosomal recessive disorders of steroidogenesis in which enzymatic defects result in impaired synthesis of cortisol by the adrenal cortex. In addition, Dr. New discovered a new form of hypertension, Apparent Mineralocorticoid Excess, which opened a new field of receptor biology. She was also the first to describe Dexamethasone-Suppressible Hyperaldosteronism, another form of low-renin hypertension. In 1999, she reported what may be the first example of a transcription factor defect in human beings.