Miljenko Lapaine graduated in the field of theoretical mathematics at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb in 1976. He obtained his MSc in 1991 and PhD in 1996 at the Faculty of Geodesy, University of Zagreb. He is a full professor giving lectures on Cartography and GIS, Multimedia Cartography, Transformations in Cartography, GIS and History of Geodesy. He published more than 480 papers in conference proceedings and journals. He has been the vice dean for education of the Faculty of Geodesy since 2003. He has been the collaborator of the Lexicographic Institute "Miroslav Krleža", a member collaborator of the Croatian Academy of Engineering, and its Secretary General since 2003, the founder and the first president of the Croatian Cartographic Society, the Editor-in-chief of the Kartografija i geoinformacije journal, and a member of several national and international professional societies.

Miljenko Lapaine is a founding member of the Association for Geospatial Information in South East Europe and a member of the Managing Board of AGISEE.