She was born in Manchester in 1918, studied at Cambridge and later moved to Canada after World War II. Milner started out at the Montreal Neurological Institute in the 1950s as a graduate student. Over the years, she mader groundbreaking findings about the brain and memory - including how doctors could operate on patients' brains without damaging memories.
Milner saw one of her patients, HM, for 30 years. He was unable to hold onto short-term memories, and never learned her name.
On Sunday, Milner turned 100, and colleagues and friends turned out to a birthday party held in her honour.
As Andrew Carter learned from her former student, researcher Dr Denise Klein, Milner still makes it into work now and then and continues to have a sharp and active mind.
You can hear their conversation here: