Raul Baragiola, Alice and Guy Wilson Professor of Engineering Physics and Materials Science in the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, died June 21 in Charlottesville. He was 70.
Baragiola had directed the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Surface Physics, which he founded in 1990. His multidisciplinary research interests were in the areas of astrophysics and astrochemistry, atomic physics, solid state physics and space sciences. A member of the 20-year Cassini mission exploring Saturn, he received many awards, including a NASA Achievement Award and a lifetime achievement award from the International Committee on Atomic Collisions in Solids for his work on ion-solid interactions.
Born in Sante Fe, Argentina, Baragiola learned to love science and astronomy from his father, he said in a 2014 documentary Eduardo Montes-Bradley made about Baragiola. He attended Instituto Balseiro in Bariloche, Argentina, held positions at Rutgers University and the Bariloche Atomic Center, also in Argentina, and was CEO of his own computer and software engineering company.
A substantial part of his lab’s work, supported by NASA and the National Science Foundation, consisted of modeling and laboratory simulations of surface processes in icy satellites, planetary atmospheres and magnetospheres, and astrochemistry.
In one interview, he said he was “someone who is always looking for questions. For me, the most fascinating stage is the very first, when an idea begins to take shape, when the elements of a problem are first discovered.”
He elaborates on one of those big questions in the opening scene of the film Eduardo Montes-Bradley made in 2014 when speculating about time and eternity as he wanders between the graves at the U.Va. cemetery: “Maybe there is a universe out there where all the times are possible and all the spaces are possible, and what we don’t have is the ability to go through paths in that universe to look for different things. You can’t look for your grandfather in there because you don’t know how to do that.”
“Some people are larger than life, and Raul was one of those people,” William C. Johnson, chair of materials science, wrote in remembering Baragiola. “He was a proponent of anyone whom he believed was being treated unfairly and, from his early years in Argentina to his last days at U.Va., he did not hesitate to speak truth to authority. Within the sciences and engineering, Raul advocated vocally and forcefully for women and under-represented faculty members.
Written, Edited, and Directed by
Eduardo MONTES-BRADLEY
