Gianni Tofani was a leading figure of the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory and of the National Institute for Astrophysics in general, with his fundamental contribution to the development of Italian radio astronomy.

Gianni Tofani's technological and scientific production ranges from the development of radio telescopes for the observation of solar activity in the 1960s, up to the fundamental contribution to the creation of the VLBI antennas in Medicina, Noto and the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT).

In the scientific field his publications include from solar radio astronomy to the study of star formation in the Galaxy, with a particular interest in the regions of ionized hydrogen associated with O and B type stars. Gianni Tofani has also contributed to opening up new lines of research such as the study of maser emission in Galactic star formation regions through both single antenna and interferometric observations.