He is known for his work on rigid body mechanics, on the mathematical theory of elasticity (including both linear elasticity and finite strain theory), on the history of mathematics and on cosmology and extragalactic celestial mechanics: in particular he is considered one of the founders of the latter branch of cosmology.
[6] There he graduated with honours in 1960 under Giuseppe Grioli's guidance, with a thesis on the continuum theory with asymmetric stress: from 1961 to 1968 he worked in Padua as an associate professor,[6][7] holding also courses on differential geometry as a lecturer.
In 1965 he was awarded the Ottorino Pomini prize by the Unione Matematica Italiana, jointly with Giuseppe Geymonat and Mario Miranda: the judging commission was composed by Dario Graffi (as the president), Giuseppe Grioli, Ennio De Giorgi and Enzo Martinelli (as the secretary).
[13][11][7] In 1989, the same academy awarded him the "Prize of the Minister of Heritage and Cultural Activity" for his work in mathematics and mechanics.
However, soon he followed his independent research path, with pioneering works that forerun the so called generalised continuum theory.