Biography

La Ragione received a Ph.D. in Mechanics from the University of Firenze (Italy) under the guide of Profs. Luigi Gambarotta (University of Genova, Italy), James T. Jenkins (Cornell University, USA) and Alfredo Sollazzo (Technical University of Bari, Italy). After post-doctoral years at Schlumberger-Doll Research Center (CT, USA), Cornell University, NY, USA) and Kingston University (U.K.), he joined the Technical University of Bari where is currently Associate Professor.  He has been visiting professor at Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University (USA),  Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Santa Barbara (USA), Stanford Rock Physics & Borehole Geophysics Project, Stanford University (USA), Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge (UK), Max-Planck Institute, Dresden (Germany).

Research Interest

His curiosity regards the granular material world from the quasi-static to the fluid condition.  He focuses on aggregate of deformable/rigid particles with and without fluid and how the stress is transmitted in it.  He attempts to understand phenomena like wave propagations, localizations or shear bands, particle pressure and difference in normal stresses in particle suspensions, fluidization in saturated bed. He has been engaged in developing models to understand the mechanical behavior of such materials  with the support of numerical simulations and physical experiments.

He is member of l'Association pour l'Etude de la Micro-Mécanique des Milieux Granulaires

Teaching

Solid Mechanics, Politecnico di Bari (Italy), Statics, Politecnico di Bari (Italy), Mechanics of Structures, Politecnico di Bari (Italy), Mechanics of Granular Materials, Politecnico di Bari (Italy), Structural Dynamics, Politecnico di Bari (Italy), Intermidiate Solid Mechanics (Cornell University), Mechanical Properties and Selection of Engineering Materials (Cornell University, USA), Multivariable Calculus for Engineers (Cornell University, USA)