John Dransfield (born 1945) is former head of palm research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Dransfield has written or contributed to several books on palms, notably both the first and second editions of Genera Palmarum. The first edition was the standard reference for palm evolution and classification and the second edition, expanding on the original, is expected to achieve that same benchmark. He studied at the University of Cambridge, B.A.(1967) biology, M.A. (1970) botany and Ph.D. biology (1970) before working at Kew Gardens. Dransfield was awarded the inaugural David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration in 1999, recognising him as the "world authority on the systematics of the palm family (Arecaceae)". In 2004, he was awarded the Linnean Medal, an annual award given by the Linnean Society of London. In 2023 Dr. Dransfield was the recipient of the Dent Smith Memorial Award, the highest accolade from the International Palm Society. The genus Dransfieldia was named for him, as was the species Adonidia dransfieldii. He married Soejatmi Dransfield (née Soejatmi Soenarko) in Malaysia (1977).
Selected works
Beyond Genera Palmarum: progress and prospects in palm systematics By William J. Baker & J Dransfield. 2016. Oxford Academy, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society,2016, 182, 207–233 ISSN 1095-8339
See also Harold E. Moore Natalie Whitford Uhl
References
Bibliography