Seppo Mattila profile picture
Seppo
Mattila
Professor, Tuorla Observatory

Contact

+358 29 450 4518
+358 50 412 5859
Vesilinnantie 5
20500
Turku

Links

ORCID

Biography

I received my PhD degree from Imperial College, Univ. of London in 2002. After this I held postdoctoral positions at Stockholm University, Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University) and Queen's University Belfast. I moved back to Finland in 2007 with an Academy of Finland Research Fellowship to work at Tuorla Observatory at University of Turku. Between 2012 and 2015 I worked at the Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA) as a University Researcher. I was appointed as a Professor of Astronomy at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University of Turku in 2015. After 2010 I have made extended research visits to Stockholm University (18 months) and to University of Cambridge, UK (10 months). I have been the Finnish delegate in the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Council since 2020 and in the International Scientific Committee (CCI) of the Roque de los Muchachos and Teide observatories since 2019. Since 2022 I have also served as the President of the CCI. I am currently also the President of the Finnish National Committee for Astronomy and a member of the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) Council and the board of FINCA, and a vice member of the board of the Univ. of Turku Faculty of Science. In 2022 I was invited as a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.

Teaching

I have taught several courses in astronomy, astrophysics and signal and image processing at the Univ. of Turku. In  particular, I initiated two new observational astronomy courses currently offered at national level for students from Turku, Helsinki, Oulu and the Aalto University. These courses offer hands-on experience on the use of the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) remotely from Univ. of Turku (Observational Techniques Using the Nordic Optical Telescope) and on the science exploitation of data from the European Southern Observatory (ESO; Data Processing Techniques for Astronomy with ESO Instrumentation). Currently I teach also the BSc course on observational astronomy and the MSc courses Spectroscopic Diagnostics in Astrophysics and Signal and Image Processing. In my teaching I always try to make use of examples from the latest research in order to offer a motivating learning experience for the students.

Research

​​​​​​My main research interests focus on observational work on extragalactic astrophysical transients, including supernovae, tidal disruption events, and kilonovae. For more details on my research and information on the research group please see https://sites.utu.fi/sne/. For a complete list of my refereed journal papers see ADS (in chronological order) or ADS (ordered by number of citations).

Selected recent papers:

Kool et al. (incl. Mattila) 2023, Nature: A radio-detected type Ia supernova with helium-rich circumstellar material

Pasham et al. (incl. Mattila) 2023, Nature Astronomy: The Birth of a Relativistic Jet Following the Disruption of a Star by a Cosmological Black Hole

Nagao, Mattila et al. 2023, A&A: Spectropolarimetry of Type II supernovae. I. Sample, observational data, and interstellar polarization

Reynolds, Mattila et al. 2022, A&A: Energetic nuclear transients in luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies

Perez-Torres, Mattila et al. 2021, The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review: Star formation and nuclear activity in luminous infrared galaxies: An infrared through radio review

Kool, Reynolds, Mattila et al. 2020, MNRAS: AT2017gbl: a dust obscured TDE candidate in a luminous infrared galaxy

Ackley et al. (incl. Mattila) 2020, A&A: Observational constraints on the optical and near-infrared emission from the neutron star-black hole binary merger S190814bv

Reynolds, Fraser, Mattila et al. 2020, MNRAS: SN 2016gsd: An unusually luminous and linear type II supernova with high velocities

Mattila et al. 2018, Science: A dust-enshrouded tidal disruption event with a resolved radio jet in a galaxy merger​

Smartt et al. (incl. Mattila) 2017, Nature: A kilonova as the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave source​

Abbott et al. (imcl. Mattila) 2017, ApJ: Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger

Kankare, Kotak, Mattila et al. 2017, Nature Astronomy: A population of highly energetic transient events in the centres of active galaxies

Kangas, Blagorodnova, Mattila et al. 2017, MNRAS: Gaia 16apd - a link between fast- and slowly-declining superluminous supernovae

Kangas, Portinari, Mattila et al. 2017, A&A: Core-collapse supernova progenitor constraints using the spatial distribution of massive stars in local galaxies

Publications

Sort by:

The MICADO first light imager for the ELT: overview and current status (2024)

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
Sturm, E.; Davies, R.; Alves, J.; Clénet, Y.; Kotilainen, J.; Monna, A.; Nicklas, H.; Pott, J.U.; Tolstoy, E.; Vulcani, B.; Achren, J.; Annadevara, S.; Anwand-Heerwart, H.; Arcidiacono, C.; Barboza, S.; Barl, L.; Baudoz, P.; Bender, R.; Bezawada, N.; Biondi, F.; Bizenberger, P.; Blin, A.; Boné, A.; Bonifacio, P.; Borgo, B.; van den Born, J.; Buey, T.; Cao, Y.; Chapron, F.; Chauvin, G.; Chemla, F.; Cloiseau, K.; Cohen, M.; Collin, C.; Czoske, O.; Dette, J.O.; Deysenroth, M.; Dijkstra, E.; Dreizler, S.; Dupuis, O.; van Egmond, G.; Eisenhauer, F.; Elswijk, E.; Emslander, A.; Fabricius, M.; Fasola, G.; Ferreira, F.; Schreiber, N.M.F.; Fontana, A.; Gaudemard, J.; Gautherot, N.; Gendron, E.; Gennet, C.; Genzel, R.; Ghouchou, L.; Gillessen, S.; Gratadour, D.; Grazian, A.; Grupp, F.; Guieu, S.; Gullieuszik, M.; de Haan, M.; Hartke, J.; Hartl, M.; Haussmann, F.; Helin, T.; Hess, H.J.; Hofferbert, R.; Huber, H.; Huby, E.; Huet, J.M.; Ives, D.; Janssen, A.; Jaufmann, P.; Jilg, T.; Jodlbauer, D.; Jost, J.; Kausch, W.; Kellermann, H.; Kerber, F.; Kravcar, H.; Kravchenko, K.; Kulcsár, C.; Kuncarayakti, H.; Kunst, P.; Kwast, S.; Lang, F.; Lange, J.; Lapeyere, V.; Le Ruyet, B.; Leschinski, K.; Locatelli, H.; Massari, D.; Mattila, S.; Mei, S.; Merlin, F.; Meyer, E.; Michel, C.; Mohr, L.; Montargès, M.; Müller, F.; Münch, N.; Navarro, R.; Neumann, U.; Neumayer, N.; Neumeier, L.; Pedichini, F.; Pflüger, A.; Piazzesi, R.; Pinard, L.; Porras, J.; Portaluri, E.; Przybilla, N.; Rabien, S.; Raffard, J.; Ragazzoni, R.; Ramlau, R.; Ramos, J.; Ramsay, S.; Raynaud, H.F.; Rhode, P.; Richter, A.; Rix, H.W.; Rodenhuis, M.; Rohloff, R.R.; Romp, R.; Rousselot, P.; Sabha, N.; Sassolas, B.; Schlichter, J.; Schuil, M.; Schweitzer, M.; Seemann, U.; Sevin, A.; Simioni, M.; Spallek, L.; Sönmez, A.; Suuronen, J.; Taburet, S.; Thomas, J.; Tisserand, E.; Vaccari, P.; Valenti, E.; Kleijn, G.V.; Verdugo, M.; Vidal, F.; Wagner, R.; Wegner, M.; van Winden, D.; Witschel, J.; Zanella, A.; Zeilinger, W.; Ziegleder, J.; Ziegler, B.
(A4 Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa)

Light-curve Structure and Hα Line Formation in the Tidal Disruption Event AT 2019azh (2024)

Astrophysical Journal
Faris, Sara; Arcavi, Iair; Makrygianni, Lydia; Hiramatsu, Daichi; Terreran, Giacomo; Farah, Joseph; Howell, D. Andrew; McCully, Curtis; Newsome, Megan; Padilla Gonzalez, Estefania; Pellegrino, Craig; Bostroem, K. Azalee; Abojanb, Wiam; Lam, Marco C.; Tomasella, Lina; Brink, Thomas G.; Filippenko, Alexei V.; French, K. Decker; Clark, Peter; Graur, Or; Leloudas, Giorgos; Gromadzki, Mariusz; Anderson, Joseph P.; Nicholl, Matt; Gutiérrez, Claudia P.; Kankare, Erkki; Inserra, Cosimo; Galbany, Lluís; Reynolds, Thomas; Mattila, Seppo; Heikkilä, Teppo; Wang, Yanan; Onori, Francesca; Wevers, Thomas; Coughlin, Eric R.; Charalampopoulos, Panos; Johansson, Joel
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )

Final alignment and image quality test for the acquisition and guiding system of SOXS (2024)

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
Araiza-Durán, José A.; Pignata, Giuliano; Brucalassi, Anna; Aliverti, Matteo; Battaini, Federico; Radhakrishnan, Kalyan; Di Filippo, Simone; Lessio, Luigi; Claudi, Riccardo; Ricci, Davide; Colapietro, Mirko; Cosentino, Rosario; D'Orsi, Sergio; Munari, Matteo; Dima, Marco; Schipani, Pietro; Campana, Sergio; Baruffolo, Andrea; Zanmar Sánchez, Ricardo; Riva, Marco; Genoni, Matteo; Ben-Ami, Sagi; Rubin, Adam; Bruch, Rachel; Capasso, Giulio; D'Alessio, Francesco; D'Avanzo, Paolo; Hershko, Ofir; Kuncarayakti, Hanindyo; Landoni, Marco; Scuderi, Salvatore; Vitali, Fabrizio; Young, David; Achrén, Jani; Arcavi, Iair; Cappellaro, Enrico; Della Valle, Massimo; Di Benedetto, Rosario; Gal-Yam, Avishay; Hernandez Diaz, Marcos; Kotilainen, Jari; Li Causi, Gianluca; Marty, Laurent; Mattila, Seppo; Rappaport, Michael; Salasnich, Bernardo; Smartt, Stephen; Stritzinger, Maximilian; Perez Ventura, Hector; Asquini, Laura; Bichkovsky, Alex; Savarese, Salvatore; Cabona, Lorenzo
(A4 Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa)

The enigmatic double-peaked stripped-envelope SN 2023aew (2024)

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kangas, T.; Kuncarayakti, H.; Nagao, T.; Kotak, R.; Kankare, E.; Fraser, M.; Stevance, H.; Mattila, S.; Maeda, K.; Stritzinger, M.; Lundqvist, P.; Elias-Rosa, N.; Ferrari, L.; Folatelli, G.; Frohmaier, C.; Galbany, L.; Kawabata, M.; Koutsiona, E.; Müller-Bravo, T. E.; Piscarreta, L.; Pursiainen, M.; Singh, A.; Taguchi, K.; Teja, R. S.; Valerin, G.; Pastorello A.; Benetti S.; Cai Y.-Z.; Charalampopoulos P.; Gutiérrez C. P.; Kravtsov T.; Reguitti A.
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )

Supernova environments in J-PLUS (2024)

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Gonzalez-Diaz Raul, Galbany Lluis, Kangas Tuomas, Garcia-Benito Ruben, Anderson Joseph P., Lyman Joseph, Varela Jesus, Oltra Lamberto, Garcia Rafael Logrono, Rojo Gonzalo Vilella, Lopez-Sanjuan Carlos, Perez-Torres Miguel Angel, Rosales-Ortega Fabian, Mattila Seppo, Kuncarayakti Hanindyo, James Phil, Habergham Stacey, Vilchez Jose Manuel, Alcaniz Jailson, Angulo Raul E., Cenarro Javier, Cristobal-Hornillos David, Dupke Renato, Ederoclite Alessandro, Hernandez-Monteagudo Carlos, Marin-Franch Antonio, Moles Mariano, Sodre Jr Laerte, Ramio Hector Vazquez
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )

The metamorphosis of the Type Ib SN 2019yvr: late-time interaction (2024)

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Ferrari Lucía, Folatelli Gastón, Kuncarayakti Hanindyo, Stritzinger Maximilian, Maeda Keiichi, Bersten Melina, Román Aguilar Lili M, Sáez M Manuela, Dessart Luc, Lundqvist Peter, Mazzali Paolo, Nagao Takashi, Ashall Chris, Bose Subhash, Brennan Seán J, Cai Yongzhi, Handberg Rasmus, Holmbo Simon, Karamehmetoglu Emir, Pastorello Andrea, Reguitti Andrea, Anderson Joseph, Chen Ting-Wan, Galbany Lluís, Gromadzki Mariusz, Gutiérrez Claudia P, Inserra Cosimo, Kankare Erkki, Müller Bravo Tomás E, Mattila Seppo, Nicholl Matt, Pignata Giuliano, Sollerman Jesper, Srivastav Shubham, Young David R
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )

The SOXS Instrument Control Software approaching the PAE (2024)

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
Ricci, Davide; Salasnich, Bernardo; Baruffolo, Andrea; Achren, Jani; Aliverti, Matteo; Araiza-Duran, Jose A.; Arcavi, Iair; Asquini, Laura; Battaini, Federico; Ben-Ami, Sagi; Bichkovsky, Alex; Brucalassi, Anna; Bruch, Rachel; Cabona, Lorenzo; Campana, Sergio; Capasso, Giulio; Cappellaro, Enrico; Claudi, Riccardo; Colapietro, Mirko; Cosentino, Rosario; D'Alessio, Francesco; D'Avanzo, Paolo; D'Orsi, Sergio; Della Valle, Massimo; Di Benedetto, Rosario; Di Filippo, Simone; Gal-Yams, Avishay; Genoni, Matteo; Diaz, Marcos Hernandez; Hershko, Ofir; Kotilainen, Jari; Kuncarayakti, Hanindyo; Landoni, Marco; Li Causi, Gianluca; Marty, Laurent; Mattila, Seppo; Munari, Matteo; Oggioni, Luca; Ventura, Hector Perez; Pariani, Giorgio; Pignata, Giuliano; Radhakrishnan, Kalyan; Smartt, Stephen; Rappaport, Michael; Riva, Marco; Rubin, Adam; Savaresec, Salvatore; Schipani, Pietro; Scuderi, Salvatore; Stritzinger, Maximilian; Vitali, Fabrizio; Young, David; Sanchez, Ricardo Zanmar
(A4 Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa)

Evidence for bipolar explosions in Type IIP supernovae (2024)

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Nagao, T.; Maeda, K.; Mattila, S.; Kuncarayakti, H.; Kawabata, M.; Taguchi, K.; Nakaoka, T.; Cikota, A.; Bulla, M.; Vasylyev, S. S.; Gutiérrez, C. P.; Yamanaka, M.; Isogai, K.; Uno, K.; Ogawa, M.; Inutsuka, S.; Tsurumi, M.; Imazawa, R.; Kawabata, K. S.
(B1 Vertaisarvioitu muu artikkeli (esim. pääkirjoitus, letter, comment) tieteellisessä lehdessä)
People search