Dr. Balcells was born in Barcelona on 31 March 1922 into a noble family. He began his high school studies at the Maragall Institute of Barcelona and completed them on 1939 at the Sant Isidoro Institute of Seville, the city where his family had moved to given the political convulsions of the period due to the Spanish Civil War.

He finished his pharmacy studies in 1932 at the University of Barcelona. He was the president of entomology section at the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Catalunya (1932-1935) and of the Museu de Zoologia de Barcelona (1935-1939). He was also a technician of the Institut Municipal de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona and of the Museu de Zoologia (1941-1966), where he became director in 1966 until 1967.

Born in Barcelona, educated at the Jesuit College, he graduated with distinction in medicine from the University of Barcelona and studied pediatrics in Paris. Regardless of his work as a pediatrician, he excelled in the field of entomology and carcinology.

Born in Navarra, he stood out studying high school at the Pamplona institute, receiving the Natural History Prize and honorable mention in Physics and Chemistry. He studied Medicine at the University of Barcelona and later developed his work in the field of pediatrics. Apart from exercising his profession as a pediatrician, he excelled in the study of Natural Sciences, standing out in the field of entomology and carcinology.