Rhoads has been a pioneer in the study of high redshift Lyman alpha galaxies. These are galaxies selected by strong emission in the Lyman alpha line, which is the n=2 to 1 transition of atomic hydrogen. Such strong Lyman alpha emission was suggested as a signpost of young galaxies in formation by Partridge and Peebles in 1967. Thirty years later, James Rhoads, Sangeeta Malhotra, and collaborators were among the first to successfully identify field galaxies in the distant universe using this line emission. Lyman alpha galaxies are now recognized as one of the major classes of high redshift galaxies, and are prime targets for present and future study with HST, JWST, and WFIRST.