James obtained a PhD from the University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. Postdoctoral work at Northwestern University Medical School, studying the biosynthesis and mode of action of macrolide antibiotics followed. In 1972, he joined Abbott Laboratories and worked on macrolides, aminoglycosides, and quinolones before heading up their natural product discovery project 1981-1996; discovered Tiacumicin B, the API of Difficid®. He joined Phytera Inc. as VP Chemistry in 1996 discovering drugs from manipulated plant cell cultures, and in 2002 joined Ecopia Bio Sciences as VP Chemistry and Discovery using genomics to discover novel secondary metabolites. He authored or co-authored 120+ papers, is inventor on 50 U.S. patents, and joined UIC as Adjunct Research Professor in 2011.