Professor Zillman has an outstanding record of achievement and leadership in climate science at both national and international levels and has been actively engaged in international scientific analysis and advice on climate change since the formation of the Ingovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over 20 years ago.

Professor Zillman is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE). He served as President of ATSE from 2003 to 2006 and of the National Academies Forum (NAF) from 2005 to 2006. He also served as President of the International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS) in 2006.

He was an officer of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology from 1957 to 2005 including 4 years (1974-78) as Assistant Director Research and 25 years (1978-2003) as Commonwealth Director of Meteorology. He was Acting Deputy Secretary and Acting Secretary of the Australian Government Departments of Science, Science and the Environment, Science and Technology, Environment, Sport and Territories and Environment and Heritage. He spent several decades severing on the Standing Committees of various Commonwealth-State Ministerial Councils dealing with water resources, agriculture and environment. He has chaired or served on a wide range of national committees and advisory bodies including the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council(PMSEIC) and the National Commission for UNESCO.

Professor Zillman served on the Executive Council of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) from 1979 to 2004, including 8 years (1987-1995) as First Vice-President and 8 years (1995-2003) as President of WMO. He led Australian Delegations to the 1993 Intergovernmental Meeting on the World Climate Programme, the 1999 World Conference on Science and the 2003, 2004 and 2005 Ministerial Earth Observation Summits. He was Australia's Principal Delegate to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1994 to 2004, served as a member of the IPCC Bureau and was a Vice Chair for both Working Group I (Physical Science) and Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability). He chaired the Steering Committee for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) from 2006 to 2009 and the International Organising Committee for the 2009 Third World Climate Conference.

Professor Zillman has published more than 150 scientific papers and reports on weather, climate, environment, international relations and science and technology policy. He chaired the Austalian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC) from 2005 to 2007 and currently chairs the Steering Committee for the Victorian Life Sciences Computing Initiative (VLSCI). He is a Vice Chancellor's Fellow in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne and a Councillor of Monash University.

He was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in 1996 and was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2003. He has been elected to Fellowship of many Australian and overseas professional societies. He received the Cleveland Abbe Award of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in 2004 and was made an Honourary Member of the AMS in 2009. In 2005, he was awarded the Fiftieth IMO Prize of the World Meteorological Organisation. Professor Zillman holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Physics and a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and Public Administration) from the University of Queensland; a Master of Science (Meteorology) from the University of Melbourne; and a Doctorate of Philosophy (Meteorology and Oceanography) from the University of Wisconsin (US). He was awarded an Honourary DSc from Monash University in 1997.