Background
Babo was the son of the agronomist Lambert Joseph von Babo and his first wife Karoline Ehrmann.
Babo was the son of the agronomist Lambert Joseph von Babo and his first wife Karoline Ehrmann.
After graduating from high school Babo studied medicine at the Universities of Heidelberg and Munich and received a doctorate in 1842 from Heidelberg.
The oenologist August Wilhelm von Babo was his half-brother. In the following year he began studying chemistry under Justus von Liebig at Gießen receiving his habilitation in 1845 from Freiburg im Breisgau. He became a Privatdozent at the University of Freiburg außerordentlicher Professor in 1854 and ordentlicher Professor in 1859.
As such, he was also appointed an expert for the Grand Ducal courts.