La Ragione is Associate Professor at Politecnico di Bari. He has spent research periods abroad as research associate at Cornell University (U.S.A.), Schlumberger-Doll Research (U.S.A.) and Kingston University (U.K.). He has held visiting positions at Max-Planke Institute in Dresda- Germany, Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge -U.K., Cornell University, Henry Poincarè Institute de Paris - France, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara- U.S.A.

Research interest concerns the mechanical behavior of aggregate of particles focusing, in particular, on constitutive relations for granular materials, contact mechanics, wave propagations, localization, microstructure and particle phase in suspensions, fluidization.