Prof. James received his PhD from the Garvan Institute in 1985 and since then has made major contributions to our understanding of insulin action. In the late 1980s he published a series of Nature papers describing the identification and characterization of the insulin responsive glucose transporter GLUT4. He then focused his efforts on unveiling the cellular and molecular control of insulin-stimulated glucose transport. He has also made contributions in the area of SNARE proteins, signal transduction and more recently has established new interests in systems biology. Prof. James is a Senior Principle Research Fellow of the NHMRC and Director of the Diabetes & Obesity Research Program at the Garvan Institute, a position he has held since 2002. He has also held Faculty positions at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis and the University of Queensland. He was the winner of the prestigious Glaxo Wellcome research medal in 1999, and was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2007.