# Steven Handel

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**Steven Neil Handel** (born January 29, 1945) is an American educator and [restoration ecologist](/source/Restoration_ecology). Handel is currently Distinguished Professor of Ecology at [Rutgers University](/source/Rutgers_University) and Visiting Professor at the [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University) [Graduate School of Design](/source/Graduate_School_of_Design).

## Career

Handel was born in [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn,_New_York). He describes himself as a "nature-loving kid" who grew up in the [Far Rockaway, Queens](/source/Far_Rockaway,_Queens), neighborhood of New York City,[3] Handel received a Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences from [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) (1969) and a Master's degree (1974) and Doctor of Philosophy (1976) in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from [Cornell University](/source/Cornell_University).

Handel began his professorial career as a [biology](/source/Biology) professor at the [University of South Carolina](/source/University_of_South_Carolina), [Yale University](/source/Yale_University)—where he also held the post of director of the [Marsh Botanical Garden](/source/Marsh_Botanical_Garden)—and [Rutgers University](/source/Rutgers_University). In 1996, he was promoted by Rutgers to a full professor of ecology and was named director of their Center for Urban Restoration Ecology.

Handel was the lead ecologist for the restoration of [Orange County Great Park](/source/Orange_County_Great_Park) in [Irvine](/source/Irvine,_California), California, and his other projects include [Brooklyn Bridge Park](/source/Brooklyn_Bridge_Park), and the landscape for the [2008 Summer Olympics](/source/2008_Summer_Olympics) in Beijing, China.

## Awards

- 2009 - [American Society of Landscape Architects](/source/American_Society_of_Landscape_Architects) Honor Research Award[4]
- 2011 - [Society for Ecological Restoration](/source/Society_for_Ecological_Restoration) Theodore M. Sperry Award[5]
- 2015 - [American Society of Landscape Architects](/source/American_Society_of_Landscape_Architects) Honor Communications Award[6]

## References

1. ["Hecht family"](https://www.ics.uci.edu/~dan/genealogy/krakow/families/hecht.html)

1. ["Steven Handel Ecology Evolution and Natural Resources"](https://deenr.rutgers.edu/faculty/steven_handel.html)

1. Ginsburg, Elisabeth. ["A Well-Traveled Ecologist"](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/10/nyregion/a-well-traveled-ecologist.html), *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*, November 10, 2002. Retrieved March 7, 2024. "As an urban ecologist, Steven N. Handel has traveled from a former landfill near Thoreau's Walden Pond to West Virginia strip mines, but he always returns to the Garden State.... Mr. Handel, who grew up in Far Rockaway, was a 'nature-loving kid,' he says."

1. ["ASLA 2009 Professional Awards"](https://www.asla.org/2009awards/index.html)

1. ["Past Award Recipients - Society for Ecological Restoration"](https://www.ser.org/page/pastrecipients)

1. ["2015 Asla Professional Awards"](https://www.asla.org/2015awards/index.html)

## External links

- [Rutgers profile](https://deenr.rutgers.edu/shandel.html)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Steven Handel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Handel) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Handel?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.