Solving cubes and shaping cities

When Lauren Phung arrived at UB without a clear major selected, she was happy to discover how many options were available for consideration. 

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to study, and UB had so many options that were available, and that was really attractive,” Phung says. “And being accepted into the Honors College was also a big selling point.”

Phung was able to create a unique academic path that combines both her personal interests and professional ambitions by pairing geographic information science and environmental sustainability for a double degree, with a minor in history.

“Sustainability has always been something that I’ve been interested in since high school, so that was actually what I declared first,” she says. “But through taking pathway coursework, that’s where I discovered my love for geography.”

As a senior, Phung has taken full advantage of academic opportunities provided over the past four years. Her experience has included coursework across multiple departments, teaching through the Honors College, writing a thesis in the Department of Geography, participating in field-based ecology courses and presenting at academic conferences. She is a College of Arts and Sciences Ambassador for the geography department, a Future Alumni Network leader since October 2022, a Student Engagement Ambassador for the Office of Student Engagement during the 2023-24 academic year, and director of sustainability and innovation for the UB chapter of the Food Recovery Network for 2023-24.

And she was recently named a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, the highest honor that SUNY bestows upon its students.

Phung says one of the most notable moments of her undergraduate career came recently when she was invited to serve as keynote speaker for a departmental colloquium — an uncommon distinction for an undergraduate.

“It definitely is super unusual for an undergrad,” Phung says. “To be featured and to be treated with the respect of a colloquium speaker meant a lot to me.”

For Phung, the experience carried special meaning because she’d attended those same talks since her first year at UB. “It really is just a big full-circle moment for me,” she notes.

Phung’s research on transportation has taken her beyond Buffalo. She presented her thesis, “Routes of Removal: Statistical Analysis of U.S. Deportation Flights,” at the American Association of Geographers’ conference in San Francisco, which she described as “the largest annual gathering of geographers in the entire world.”

Another milestone experience came in January, when she traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia as part of a fully funded research program through the SUNY/CUNY Southeast Asia Consortium. There, she studied Vietnam’s transition from motorbikes to cars and the effects on air quality and congestion.

The trip was both scientifically and personally important.

“Half of my family is from Vietnam. My dad grew up there, so it was meaningful to reconnect with my heritage, especially because my dad passed away four years ago,” she says. “Doing research there feels like a way of honoring him.”

After graduation this May, Phung will continue her studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she will pursue a master’s degree in city and regional planning with a concentration in transportation policy and planning.

“Ideally, I’d like to start my career at a metropolitan planning organization,” she says. “Eventually, I want to lead a municipal transportation agency.”

Her long-term goal: to serve as U.S. secretary of transportation.

In the meantime, she plans to stay grounded in local communities, where she believes meaningful change begins.

“One of the most important things I’ve learned at UB is that to create change, you have to embed yourself in a community and a lot of change happens locally,” she says.

But Phung has not spent all her time immersed in rigorous academics and research. She’s also spent nearly a decade pursuing another passion: solving Rubik’s Cube. What began as a challenge from another kid in Mandarin school at age 10 has grown into a unique skill that has led to numerous leadership opportunities.

“This hobby has taught me everything I know about goal setting and goal achieving,” she explains. “It taught me skills that were necessary for me to succeed in college and in life.

“I took it upon myself to learn how to solve the Rubik’s Cube. I had a little book that I learned from, and then within a couple of weeks, I had it down — without any instructions or anything.”

Phung continually challenged herself to do better and beat her original goal time of one minute.

“I knew I could do better and now I can solve a cube in 6 seconds.”

Phung continues to compete but also has undertaken other roles with Rubik’s Cube. She organized her first competition at age 15, became an official World Cube Association delegate at 17, and has since overseen more than 50 competitions, helping to grow the cubing community across the state.

Lauren was recently featured in At Buffalo magazine and her interview can be read by visiting this link.