Josip Balabanić was born in 1939 in Kolan on the island of Pag. He attended elementary school in his birthplace, went to the Archiepiscopal Classics High School in Zagreb up to 1958, and took a course in theology in the Catholic Theology Faculty in Zagreb and Zadar.
In 1964 -1965 he privately passed four grades of high school, graduated and enrolled in the biology course of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics faculty in Zagreb.
He worked as a teacher in Zadar, and in 1972 enrolled in the post-graduate school of experimental biology. He obtained a master’s with a thesis on the Differentiation of cytosoluble proteins in the ontogenesis of human beings, and a doctorate with a dissertation on Darwinism in Croatia. He dealt with scientific research in the Institute for the History of Natural, Mathematical and Medical Sciences of the Yugoslav Academy, and in 1988, as scientific adviser, received an appointment in the Croatian Natural History Museum.
His particular contribution has been to the reception of Darwinism in Croatia. He has written four books, some 30 original scientific papers, 40 or so specialised articles. He has contributed to the understanding of the work of leading Croatian natural historians and biologists (Spiridon Bursina, Ljudevit Farkaš Vukotinovic, Bogoslav Šulek and others). His best known work is that concerning Vukotinovic, [At the wellsprings of modern Croatia], published by Školska knjiga in 2005. He has produced many articles and brochures and organised an international conference (with a catalogue) called Nature+Culture. In 1992 he launched the scientific and specialised journal of the Croatian Natural History Museum Natura Croatica, with an international editorial board, of which he was the first editor.

NB. Data taken from the questionnaire, material taken from the Personnel Archives of the MDC, and from an interview recorded on September 30, 2003.