After completing the course at the Warsaw Gymnasium in 1839, he was sent as a scholarship recipient from the Congress Poland to the St. Petersburg Imperial University.

At the first meeting of the society in 1870, Tsenkovsky proposed the creation of a biological station in Sevastopol in pursuance of the resolution of the Second Congress of Russian Naturalists and Doctors, adopted in 1869.

and a number of precise studies established a genetic connection between monads and myxomycetes, heliozoa and radiolaria, flagellates and palmelliform algae, etc.

Already in his test lecture  Tsenkovsky expressed a correct and for that time bold view that, as his own research convinced him, ciliates are the protozoa organisms, consisting of a lump of protoplasm, and that Ehrenberg’s then dominant view of ciliates as highly organized animals is incorrect.

His doctoral dissertation “On lower algae and ciliates,” dedicated to the morphology and history of the development of various microscopic organisms (Sphacroplea annulina, Achlya prolifera, Actinosphaerium, etc.)

Already in this work the idea was expressed that there is no sharp boundary between the plant and animal worlds, and that this is precisely what is confirmed by the organization of the studied forms.

His most important research on the history of the development of myxomycetes (slime fungi) and monads gave him the opportunity to bring both together.

Many important works of Tsenkovsky are devoted to lower algae and fungi belonging to the plant kingdom, and amoebas, sunfishes (Actinosphaerium, Clathrulina, etc.

In 1880, Tsenkovsky undertook a trip to the White Sea, and was mainly engaged in collecting microorganisms on the Solovetsky Islands, with their subsequent study in the laboratory.