It is with great emotion and esteem that the Ferrara Section of INFN remembers Prof. Giovanni Fiorentini, who died on June the 18th 2022 at the age of 74. Born in Serravezza, he grew up within the walls of a small village in the Maremma Toscana: Magliano in Toscana. After graduating with honours in Physics in 1970 at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa he was postdoc and assistant at the same school until 1974 when he became a researcher at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. Since 1987 he has been full professor of Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics at the University of Cagliari.
In 1990 he moved to Ferrara with his family. At the University of Ferrara he was a member of the Board of Directors and of the Academic Senate, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematica, Physical and Natural Sciences, Coordinator of the PhD in Physics and Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies IUSS-Ferrara 1391, structure created to coordinate the activities of all the doctoral courses of the University. He was a member of the National University Council in 2017-18, representing the full professors of the area 02-Physical Sciences. He was appointed Professor Emeritus in 2019. In the extra-academic field, he chaired the Consorsio Futuro in Ricerca, a research organization under private law.
Prof. Giovanni Fiorentini has always been deeply linked to the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, which he passionately served as a member of the Board of Directors from 1986 to 1989, as director of the Ferrara Section from 2004 to 2009 and as director of the Legnaro National Laboratories from 2010 to 2016. In collaboration with numerous Italian and foreign scientists, he has carried out theoretical research, with particular regard to the properties of neutrinos and the applications of nuclear physics to different disciplines, such as Astrophysics, Earth Sciences and Nuclear Medicine.
He always combined his professional and scientific skills with extraordinary humanity and sympathy in relationships with colleagues and students. He was a reference point for the Section and we will miss him very much.
