James Angel combines outstanding instrumental talents with a wide knowledge of astronomical problems. His main work has been on the optical and X-ray polarization of astronomical sources. With others, he discovered the large (107 gauss) magnetic fields in certain white dwarf stars. James is also the leading authority on the polarization of Seyfert galaxies and quasars.

He has constructed instrumentation for the Multiple Mirror Telescope in Arizona, including the ‘Medusa’ multiple-object spectrograph, which uses fibre optics. He is a forceful advocate for the construction of larger telescopes using the MMT principle and is now working on novel schemes for producing large, lightweight mirrors.