Terentjev earned his MSc in Physics from Moscow State University, and his PhD from Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. He then carried out postdoctoral research at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, before moving to Cambridge in 1992. Terentjev's h-index is over 60, with over 16000 citations to his articles. His most notable contributions are in the scientific field of liquid crystal elastomers, and in biophysics.