He completed his PhD in physics under Daniel Frank Walls[1] at the University of Waikato in 1982, with a thesis entitled Squeezed States and Quantum Nondemolition Measurements.

[citation needed] Following his PhD, Milburn did postdoctoral research in the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College London in 1983.

[citation needed] Later, in 1984, he was awarded a Royal Society Fellowship to work in the Quantum Optics group of Peter Knight,[1] at Imperial.

From 2000 to 2010 he was Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology.

[citation needed] From 2011 to 2017 he was the Director and Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems.