[4] Giovanelli was the recipient of the 1949 Edgeworth David Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales for the discipline of astrophysics, which recognises distinguished contributions by scientists under the age of 35 in their respective fields.

George Henry would go on to marry Lucy Ellen Arkey and have eight children, with Irwin Wilfred, Ronald's father, being born on 7 August 1887.

With his father becoming a headmaster, Ronald attended a variety of schools in the towns of Milton, Trundle, and Forbes in New South Wales during his early years.

Giovanelli and eight other scientists were recruited by the CSIR as research scholars to develop the NSL, primarily tasked with being able to establish national standards of measurement.

[2] During his time in the British National Physical Laboratory, he attended scientific symposiums in The Royal Institution in London, as well as visiting The University of Cambridge, where he was able to meet Sir Arthur Eddington OM FRS due to the earlier work he conducted during his stint at the Commonwealth Solar Observatory.

The occurrence of World War II meant that the NSL's tasks were diverted from creating measurement standards towards more urgent war-time national defence projects.

[14] As Senior Principal Research Scientist and Leader of the Light division of the CSIRO, Giovanelli contributed greatly to Australian Standards in the fields of optics, photometry, and colorimetry.

After World War II, universities were rapidly expanding in Australia, resulting in a scarcity of optical scientific equipment for use in the education sector.

He was appointed as Honorary Associate of the Department of Applied Mathematics at The University of Sydney in 1959, where he was responsible for working with students of solar physics, and overseeing their PhD courses.

[8] He was also a visiting scientist at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, USA for six months in 1975 and 1979, and for a year in 1981, where he was involved with measuring the velocities of plasma contained in flux tubes.

On the 26th to 29 November, 1984 in Sydney, a colloquium was held in commemoration of Giovanelli, entitled "Past Progress and Future Developments in Solar and Stellar Atmospheric Physics.

[14] At one point during this colloquium, all attendees congregated around a sundial located at the grounds of the Division of Applied Physics of the CSIRO in order to take part in a ceremony of dedication and tribute to Ronald Giovanelli's memory.

[14] Giovanelli was scheduled to give a speech on the subject of magnetic reconnection at an earlier colloquium in Los Alamos, New Mexico, but was unable to do so due to ill health.

[17] In October 1983, a magnetic reconnection conference took place at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA, which was attended by more than a hundred scientists from over a dozen countries.

According to the official records for this conference, it was during this event that Giovanelli was honoured for originating this concept, 37 years after his first published work, documenting the effect.

[17] Giovanelli published an article in 1946 proposing that the production of chromospheric flares are contingent on the energy obtained by these charged particles when operating within induced electric fields within close proximity of sunspots.

[2][26] 'Secrets of the Sun' was designed as a book for laymen, written without highly technical terminology, scientific jargon or mathematical equations so that it would be comprehended by non-scientists and non-specialists.