James is an agricultural biotechnologist working primarily on developing the next generation of banana cultivars for the Australian and global banana industries and for resource poor farmers in developing countries. He leads the Banana Biotechnology Program at Queensland University of Technology. The major outcomes from this program include disease resistant bananas and bananas with enhanced levels of micronutrients. Our “golden bananas” have been developed in collaboration with Ugandan colleagues and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. These are cooking bananas which are the staple food of Uganda and they have elevated levels of pro-vitamin A as a strategy to overcome vitamin A deficiency in Uganda and surrounding countries. The program has also developed Cavendish bananas with resistance to Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4), a disease which threatens the continued production of Cavendish worldwide. The best line, QCAV-4, was developed using genetic modification and has recently been approved for commercial production in Australia. This is the first genetically modified bananas released to farmers anywhere in the world. James was the 2019 Queensland Senior Australian of the Year, is a Queensland Great and is a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).