John Dransfield is an honorary research fellow and former head of palm research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom, as well as being an authority on the phylogenetic classification of palms.
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., M.A. and Ph.D. before working at Kew Gardens.
In 2004, Dransfield was awarded the Linnean Medal, an annual award given by the Linnean Society of London.
The genus Dransfieldia was named for him, as was the species Adonidia dransfieldii.