Seppo Mattila profile picture
Seppo
Mattila
Professor, Tuorla Observatory

Contact

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

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

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Extreme variability in an active galactic nucleus: Gaia16aax (2020)

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cannizzaro G, Fraser M, Jonker PG, Pringle JE, Mattila S, Hewett PC, Wevers T, Kankare E, Kostrzewa-Rutkowska Z, Wyrzykowski L, Onori F, Harmanen J, Ford KES, McKernan B, Nixon CJ
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

MICADO PSF-reconstruction work package description (2020)

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
Busoni L., Esposito S., Salasnich B., Baruffolo A., Portaluri E., Zanella A., Gendron É., Piazzesi R., Mattila S., Falomo R., Helin T., Kuncarayakti H., Pinna E., Simioni M., Grazian A., Arcidiacono C., Davies R., Clenet Y., Verdoes Kleijn G., Gullieuszik M., Wagner R., Pedichini F., Zeilinger W.W., Ramlau R., Vulcani B., Vidal F., Sevin A., Ragazzoni R.
(Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa (A4))

Machine learning for transient recognition in difference imaging with minimum sampling effort (2020)

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mong YL, Ackley K, Galloway DK, Killestein T, Lyman J, Steeghs D, Dhillon V, O'Brien PT, Ramsay G, Poshyachinda S, Kotak R, Nuttall L, Palle E, Pollacco D, Thrane E, Dyer MJ, Ulaczyk K, Cutter R, McCormac J, Chote P, Levan AJ, Marsh T, Stanway E, Gompertz B, Wiersema K, Chrimes A, Obradovic A, Mullaney J, Daw E, Littlefair S, Maund J, Makrygianni L, Burhanudin U, Starling RLC, Eyles-Ferris RAJ, Tooke S, Duffy C, Aukkaravittayapun S, Sawangwit U, Awiphan S, Mkrtichian D, Irawati P, Mattila S, Heikkila T, Breton R, Kennedy M, Sanchez DM, Rol E
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Operational modes and efficiency of SOXS (2020)

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
R. Claudi, F. Biondi, N. Elias-Rosa, M. Genoni, M. Munari, K. Radhakrishnan, D. Ricci, R. Zánmar Sánchez, S. Campana, P. Schipani, M. Aliverti, A. Baruffolo, S. Ben-Ami, A. Brucalassi, G. Capasso, R. Cosentino, F. D'Alessio, P. D'Avanzo, O. Hershko, H. Kuncarayakti, M. Landoni, G. Pignata, A. Rubin, S. Scuderi, F. Vitali, D. Young, J. Achrén, J. A. Araiza-Durán, I. Arcavi, R. Bruch, E. Cappellaro, M. Colapietro, M. Della Valle, R. Di Benedetto, M. De Pascale, S. D'Orsi, M. Hernandez, A. Gal-Yam, G. Li Causi, L. Marafatto, S. Mattila, M. Rappaport, M. Riva, B. Salasnich, S. Smartt, M. Stritzinger, M. Turatto, H. Pérez Ventura
(Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa (A4))

GRB 200723A: GOTO candidate afterglow and host galaxy (2020)

Gompertz B, Wiersema K, Galloway DK, Starling R, Lyman J, Ackley K, Mong Y-L, Steeghs D, Dhillon V, O'Brien P, Ramsay G, Pollacco D, Thrane E, Poshyachinda S, Kotak R, Nuttall L, Palle E, Ulaczyk K, Cutter R, Levan A, Marsh T, West R, Stanway E, Killestein T, Casey A, Brown M, Muller B, Dyer M, Mullaney J, Daw E, Littlefair S, Maund J, Makrygianni L, Burhanudin U, Eyles R, Tooke S, Aukkaravittayapun S, Sawangwit U, Awiphan S, Mkrtichian D, Irawati P, Mattila S, Heikkilä T, Rol E; GOTO Collaboration
(Artikkeli ammatillisessa kokoomateoksessa (D2))

The AIV strategy of the common path of Son Of X-Shooter (2020)

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
Federico Biondi, Kalyan Kumar Radhakrishnan Santhakumari, Riccardo Claudi, Matteo Aliverti, Luca Marafatto, Davide Greggio, Marco Dima, Gabriele Umbriaco, Nancy Elias-Rosa, Sergio Campana, Pietro Schipani, Andrea Baruffolo, Sagi Ben-Ami, Giulio Capasso, Rosario Cosentino, Francesco D'Alessio, Paolo D'Avanzo, Ofir Hershko, Hanindyo Kuncarayakti, Marco Landoni, Matteo Munari, Giuliano Pignata, Adam Rubin, Salvatore Scuderi, Fabrizio Vitali, David Young, Jani Achrén, José Antonio Araiza-Durán, Iair Arcavi, Anna Brucalassi, Rachel Bruch, Enrico Cappellaro, Mirko Colapietro, Massimo Della Valle, Marco De Pascale, Rosario Di Benedetto, Sergio D'Orsi, Avishay Gal-Yam, Matteo Genoni, Marcos Hernandez Diaz, Jari Kotilainen, Gianluca Li Causi, Seppo Mattila, Michael Rappaport, Davide Ricci, Marco Riva, Bernardo Salasnich, Stephen Smartt, Ricardo Zánmar Sánchez, Maximilian Stritzinger, Héctor Pérez Ventura
(Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa (A4))

LIGO/Virgo S200302c: No notable candidates in GOTO imaging (2020)

Mong Y-L, Ackley K, Galloway DK, Steeghs D, Dhillon V, O'Brien P, Ramsay G, Pollacco D, Thrane E, Poshyachinda S, Kotak R, Nuttall L, Pallé E, Ulaczyk K, Lyman J, Cutter R, Levan A, Marsh T, West R, Stanway E, Gompertz B, Wiersema K, Killestein T, Casey A, Brown M, Muller B, Dyer M, Mullaney J, Daw E, Littlefair S, Maund J, Makrygianni L, Burhanudin U, Starling R, Eyles R, Tooke S, Aukkaravittayapun S, Sawangwit U, Awiphan S, Mkrtichian D, Irawati P, Mattila S, Heikkilä T, Rol E; GOTO Collaboration
(Artikkeli ammatillisessa kokoomateoksessa (D2))

The SOXS data-reduction pipeline (2020)

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
Sanchez R.Z., Stritzinger M., Ventura H., Radhakrishnan K., Ricci D., Riva M., Salasnich B., Young D.R., Smartt S.J., Landoni M., Claudi R., Campana S., Aliverti M., Schipani P., Biondi F., Capasso G., Baruffolo A., Ben-Ami S., D'Avanzo P., Hershko O., Cosentino R., D'Alessio F., Pignata G., Rubin A., Kuncarayakti H., Munari M., Achrén J., Araiza-Duran J.A., Scuderi S., Vitali F., Cappellaro E., Bruch R., Brucalassi A., Arcavi I., Di Benedetto R., De Pascale M., Della Valle M., Colapietro M., Hernandez M., Genoni M., Gal-Yam A., D'Orsi S., Rappaport M., Mattila S., Li Causi G., Kotilainen J.
(Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa (A4))

Searching for electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave merger events with the prototype Gravitational-Wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO-4) (2020)

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gompertz BP, Cutter R, Steeghs D, Galloway DK, Lyman J, Ulaczyk K, Dyer MJ, Ackley K, Dhillon VS, O'Brien PT, Ramsay G, Poshyachinda S, Kotak R, Nuttall L, Breton RP, Palle E, Pollacco D, Thrane E, Aukkaravittayapun S, Awiphan S, Brown MJI, Burhanudin U, Chote P, Chrimes AA, Daw E, Duffy C, Eyles-Ferris RAJ, Heikkila T, Irawati P, Kennedy MR, Killestein T, Levan AJ, Littlefair S, Makrygianni L, Marsh T, Sanchez DM, Mattila S, Maund J, McCormac J, Mkrtichian D, Mong YL, Mullaney J, Muller B, Obradovic A, Rol E, Sawangwit U, Stanway ER, Starling RLC, Strom PA, Tooke S, West R, Wiersema K
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

The Most Rapidly Declining Type I Supernova 2019bkc/ATLAS19dqr (2020)

Astrophysical Journal Letters
Ping Chen, Subo Dong, M. D. Stritzinger, Simon Holmbo, Jay Strader, C. S. Kochanek, Eric W. Peng, S. Benetti, D. Bersier, Sasha Brownsberger, David A. H. Buckley, Mariusz Gromadzki, Shane Moran, A. Pastorello, Elias Aydi, Subhash Bose, Thomas Connor, K. Boutsia, F. Di Mille, N. Elias-Rosa, K. Decker French, Thomas W.-S. Holoien, Seppo Mattila, B. J. Shappee, Antony A. Stark, Samuel J. Swihart
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))