He conducted research into optical fibre transmission systems at the GEC Hirst Research Centre, London, from 1977 – 1979, and into optical monitoring and control for haemodialysis procedures at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, between 1983 and 1985. His research focusses on optical materials and devices for sensing and telecommunications including integrated fluorescence multisensors, waveguide Raman biosensors and mid-IR waveguide spectroscopy for environmental monitoring and point-of-care medical diagnostics, and rare-earth-doped waveguide amplifiers and lasers. James is a Fellow of the IEEE, IET and the IoP, was a member of the Royal Society Working Group on the Detection and Decontamination of Chemical Weapons (2003/4) and has an h-index of 40. He was a cofounder of UoS spin-out Mesophotonics Ltd, which first commercialised Klarite SERS chips. James recently completed a €3M ERC Advanced Investigator Grant on “Wideband Integrated Photonics for Accessible Biomedical Diagnostics”, and is Co-I on a £6M Programme Grant on Silicon Photonics for Future Systems.