Dr. John Dransfield
Honorary Research Fellow
He was educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and gained his Ph.D. under Professor E.J.H. Corner in 1970 with a study of two Malaysian palm genera, Eugeissona and Johannesteijsmannia. He went on to devote his working life to palm research, working first in Indonesia for four years on palms specializing in the rattans, the climbing palms that are the source of cane for cane-furniture. In 1975, he continued palm research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew where he was head of Palm Research until his retirement in 2005.
He continues his research as an Honorary Research Fellow. He has completed several consultancies on rattans for FAO, British Overseas Development Agency, and the Commonwealth Development Corporation. Much of his work since retirement has been devoted to the palms of Madagascar, palms of New Guinea, and palm generic delimitation.