Terry A Miller received his B.A. degree in Chemistry at the University of Kansas in 1965, and his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at Cambridge University in 1968. He worked as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1968 to 1984. He then joined Ohio State University in 1984 as the state of Ohio's first Eminent Scholar.

Miller has received numerous research awards including the William F. Meggers Award from the Optical Society in 1993, the Bomem-Michaelson Award from the Coblentz Society in 1995, the Bourke Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1998, the Broida Prize from the American Physical Society in 1999, the Plyler Prize from APS in 2009, and the Morley Prize from the Cleveland Society, American Chemical Society in 2009. Miller is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy, and he serves on a number of editorial boards, including Journal of Chemical Physics; Review of Scientific Instruments; Journal of Physical Chemistry; Journal of the Optical Society of America; Chemtracts; Annual Reviews of Physical Chemistry; Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy; Laser Chemistry; Journal of Molecular Structure; and Chemical Physics Letters. Miller is a Fellow of OSA, APS, American Chemical Society, and the American Association for Advancement of Science.