Seppo Mattila
 

Department of Physics and Astronomy

sepmat@utu.fi

+358 29 450 4518

+358 50 412 5859

Vesilinnantie 5

Turku


ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7497-2994

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.



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:

Reynolds, Thomsen, Mattila et al. 2025, A&A: Infrared observations reveal the reprocessing envelope in the tidal disruption event AT 2019azh

Matilainen, Kankare, Mattila et al. 2025, A&A: Long-term evolution of the SN 2009ip-like transient SN 2016cvk

Mäntynen, Kankare, Mattila et al. 2025, A&A: The undetectable fraction of core-collapse supernovae in luminous infrared galaxies

Gutiérrez, Mattila et al. 2024, ApJ: CSS 161010: A Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient with Broad Blueshifted Hydrogen Lines

Nagao, Maeda, Mattila et al. 2024, A&A: Evidence for bipolar explosions in Type IIP supernovae

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

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



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.



Publications
  
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  • Optical spectrum of the TDE AT2018hco  (2018)  Astronomer's Telegram T. M. Reynolds, I. Arcavi, M. B. Stone, P. Nurmi, S. Mattila, M. Hanski, M. Taskula, K. Räsänen, R. Meller, V. Vepsäläinen
    (    D2 Article in a professional compilation book)


  • Radio Observations of SN 2018ec  (2018)  Astronomer's Telegram S. Ryder, E. Kool, E. Kankare, S. Mattila, R. Kotak, J. Kotilainen, H. Kuncarayakti, M. Perez-Torres, Z. Randriamanakoto, T. Reynolds, C. Romero-Canizales, S. Smartt, P. Väisänen, C. Stockdale, G. Anderson
    (    D2 Article in a professional compilation book)


  • SN 2017dio: A Type-Ic Supernova Exploding in a Hydrogen-rich Circumstellar Medium  (2018)  
    • Astrophysical Journal Letters
     Hanindyo Kuncarayakti, Keiichi Maeda, Christopher J. Ashall, Simon J. Prentice, Seppo Mattila, Erkki Kankare, Claes Fransson, Peter Lundqvist, Andrea Pastorello, Giorgos Leloudas, Joseph P. Anderson, Stefano Benetti, Melina C. Bersten, Enrico Cappellaro, R´egis Cartier, Larry Denneau, Massimo Della Valle, Nancy Elias-Rosa, Gast´on Folatelli, Morgan Fraser, Llu´ıs Galbany, Christa Gall, Avishay Gal-Yam, Claudia P. Guti´errez, Aleksandra Hamanowicz, Ari Heinze, Cosimo Inserra, Tuomas Kangas, Paolo Mazzali, Andrea Melandri, Giuliano Pignata, Armin Rest, Thomas Reynolds, Rupak Roy, Stephen J. Smartt, Ken W. Smith, Jesper Sollerman, Auni Somero, Brian Stalder, Maximilian Stritzinger, Francesco Taddia, Lina Tomasella, John Tonry, Henry Weiland, David R. Young
    (    A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)


  • SOXS: A wide band spectrograph to follow up transients  (2018)  
    • Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
    Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII Ricci D., Riva M., Salasnich B., Zanmar Sanchez R., Mattila S., Pariani G., Pignata G., Rappaport M., Smartt S., Turatto M., Campana S., Schipani P., Käufl H., Claudi R., Aliverti M., Accardo M., Ben Ami S., Baruffolo A., Brucalassi A., Biondi F., D'Alessio F., D'Avanzo P., Capasso G., Cosentino R., Kuncarayacti H., Munari M., Hershko O., Gardiol D., Vitali F., Achrén J., Rubin A., Scuderi S., Bianco A., Cappellaro E., Araiza-Duran J., Arcavi I., D'Orsi S., Diner O., Della Valle M., Colapietro M., Genoni M., Gal-Yam A., Fynbo J., Fantinel D., Landoni M., Kumar T., Kotilainen J., Hirvonen M., Marafatto L., Loreggia D., Li Causi G., Lehti J.
    (    A4 Refereed article in a conference publication )


  • SOXS control electronics design  (2018)  
    • Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
    Proceedings Volume 10707, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy V; G. Capasso, M. Colapietro, S. D'Orsi, P. Schipani, M. Aliverti, H. Kuncarayakti, S. Scuderi, I. Coretti, S. Campana, R. Claudi, A. Baruffolo, S. Ben-Ami, F. Biondi, A. Brucalassi, R. Cosentino, F. D'Alessio, P. D'Avanzo, O. Hershko, M. Munari, A. Rubin, F. Vitali, J. Achrén, J. Antonio Araiza-Duran, I. Arcavi, A. Bianco, E. Cappellaro, M. Della Valle, O. Diner, D. Fantinel, J. Fynbo, A. Gal-Yam, M. Genoni, M. Hirvonen, J. Kotilainen, T. Kumar, M. Landoni, J. Lehti, G. Li Causi, L. Marafatto, S. Mattila, G. Pariani, G. Pignata, M. Rappaport, D. Ricci, M. Riva, B. Salasnich, R. Zanmar Sanchez, S. Smartt, M. Turatto
    (    A4 Refereed article in a conference publication )


  • Spectroscopic classification of ASASSN-18bq by NUTS (NOT Un-biased Transient Survey)  (2018)  Astronomer's Telegram J. Harmanen, H. Kuncarayakti, S. Mattila, T. Reynolds, S. Moran, S. Benetti, A. Somero, T. Kangas, P. Lundqvist, F. Taddia, M. Ergon, S. Dong, M. Fraser, M. Stritzinger, J. Telting; on behalf of the NUTS collaboration
    (    D2 Article in a professional compilation book)


  • Spectroscopic classification of supernova SN 2018Z by NUTS (NOT Un-biased Transient Survey)  (2018)  Astronomer's Telegram H. Kuncarayakti, S. Mattila, R. Kotak, J. Harmanen, T. Reynolds, A. Pastorello, S. Benetti, M. Stritzinger, F. Onori, A. Somero, T. Kangas, P. Lundqvist, F. Taddia, M. Ergon; on behalf of NUTS collaboration
    (    D2 Article in a professional compilation book)


  • Spectroscopic observation of ATLAS18sld/SN 2018ebt by NUTS (NOT Un-biased Transient Survey)  (2018)  Astronomer's Telegram S. Moran, Subo Dong, Subhash Bose, S. Benetti, M. Fraser, M. Stritzinger, S. Mattila, J. Harmanen, H. Kuncarayakti, T. Reynolds, A. Somero, F. Taddia, S. Dyrbye, S. J. Smartt, K. W. Smith, J. Tonry, L. Denneau, B. Stalder, A. Heinze, H. Weiland, H. Flewelling, A. Rest; on behalf of the NUTS and ATLAS collaboration
    (    D2 Article in a professional compilation book)


  • Spectroscopic observation of SN 2017jzp and SN 2018bf by NUTS (NOT Un-biased Transient Survey)  (2018)  Astronomer's Telegram H. Kuncarayakti, S. Mattila, R. Kotak, J. Harmanen, T. Reynolds, L. Wyrzykowski, M. Stritzinger, F. Onori, A. Somero, T. Kangas, P. Lundqvist, F. Taddia, M. Ergon; on behalf of NUTS collaboration
    (    D2 Article in a professional compilation book)


  • Supernovae 2016bdu and 2005gl, and their link with SN 2009ip-like transients: another piece of the puzzle  (2018)  
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
     Pastorello A., Kochanek C. S., Fraser M., Dong Subo, Elias-Rosa N., Filippenko A. V., Benetti S., Cappellaro E., Tomasella L., Drake A. J., Harmanen J., Reynolds T., Shappee B. J., Smartt S. J., Chambers K. C., Huber M. E., Smith K., Stanek K. Z., Christensen E. J., Denneau L., Djorgovski S. G., Flewelling H., Gall C., Gal-Yam A., Geier S., Heinze A., Holoien T. W.-S., Isern J., Kangas T., Kankare E., Koff R. A., Llapasset J.-M., Lowe T. B., Lundqvist P., Magnier E. A., Mattila S., Morales-Garoffolo A., Mutel R., Nicolas J., Ochner P., Ofek E. O., Prosperi E., Rest A., Sano Y., Stalder B., Stritzinger M. D., Taddia F., Terreran G., Tonry J. L., Wainscoat R. J., Waters C., Weiland H., Willman M., Young D. R., Zheng W.
    (    A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)


  • The 30 Year Search for the Compact Object in SN 1987A  (2018)  
    • Astrophysical Journal
     Alp D, Larsson J, Fransson C, Indebetouw R, Jerkstrand A, Ahola A, Burrows D, Challis P, Cigan P, Cikota A, Kirshner RP, van Loon JT, Mattila S, Ng CY, Park S, Spyromilio J, Woosley S, Baes M, Bouchet P, Chevalier R, Frank KA, Gaensler BM, Gomez H, Janka HT, Leibundgut B, Lundqvist P, Marcaide J, Matsuura M, Sollerman J, Sonneborn G, Staveley-Smith L, Zanardo G, Gabler M, Taddia F, Wheeler JC, Taddia F, Wheeler JC
    (    A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)


  • The acquisition camera system for SOXS at NTT  (2018)  
    • Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
    Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII A. Brucalassi, J. A. Araiza-Durán, G. Pignata, S. Campana, R. Claudi, P. Schipani, M. Aliverti, A. Baruffolo, S. Ben-Ami, F. Biondi, G. Capasso, R. Cosentino, F. D'Alessio, P. D'Avanzo, D. Gardiol, O. Hershko, H. Kuncarayakti, M. Munari, D. Ricci, M. Riva, A. Rubin, R. Zanmar Sanchez, S. Scuderi, F. Vitali, J. Achrén, I. Arcavi, A. Bianco, E. Cappellaro, M. Colapietro, M. Della Valle, O. Diner, S. D'Orsi, D. Fantinel, J. Fynbo, A. Gal-Yam, M. Genoni, M. Hirvonen, J. Kotilainen, T. Kumar, M. Landoni, J. Lehti, G. Li Causi, D. Loreggia, L. Marafatto, S. Mattila, G. Pariani, M. Rappaport, B. Salasnich, S. Smartt, M. Turatto
    (    A4 Refereed article in a conference publication )


  • The assembly integration and test activities for the new SOXS instrument at NTT  (2018)  
    • Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
    Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII F. Biondi, R. Claudi, L. Marafatto, J. Farinato, D. Magrin, R. Ragazzoni, 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. Munari, A. Rubin, S. Scuderi, F. Vitali, J. Achrén, J. Antonio Araiza-Durán, I. Arcavi, A. Bianco, E. Cappellaro, M. Colapietro, M. Della Valle, O. Diner, S. D'Orsi, D. Fantinel, J. Fynbo, A. Gal-Yam, M. Genoni, M. Hirvonen, J. Kotilainen, T. Kumar, M. Landoni, J. Lehti, G. Li Causi, S. Mattila, G. Pariani, G. Pignata, M. Rappaport, M. Riva, D. Ricci, B. Salasnich, R. Zanmar Sanchez, S. Smartt, M. Turatto
    (    A4 Refereed article in a conference publication )


  • The common path of SOXS (Son of X-Shooter)  (2018)  
    • Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
    Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII R. Claudi, M. Aliverti, F. Biondi, M. Munari, R. Zanmar Sanchez, S. Campana, P. Schipani, A. Baruffolo, S. Ben-Ami, A. Brucalassi, G. Capasso, R. Cosentino, F. D'Alessio, P. D'Avanzo, O. Hershko, H. Kuncarayakti, A. Rubin, S. Scuderi, F. Vitali, J. Achrén, J. A. Araiza-Durán, I. Arcavi, A. Bianco, E. Cappellaro, M. Colapietro, M. Della Valle, O. Diner, S. D'Orsi, D. Fantinel, J. Fynbo, A. Gal-Yam, M. Genoni, M. Hirvonen, J. Kotilainen, T. Kumar, M. Landoni, J. Lehti, G. Li Causi, L. Marafatto, S. Mattila, G. Pariani, G. Pignata, M. Rappaport, D. Ricci, M. Riva, B. Salasnich, S. Smartt, M. Turatto
    (    A4 Refereed article in a conference publication )


  • The Early Detection and Follow-up of the Highly Obscured Type II Supernova 2016ija/DLT16am  (2018)  
    • Astrophysical Journal
     L. Tartaglia, D. J. Sand, S. Valenti, S. Wyatt, J. P. Anderson, I. Arcavi, C. Ashall, M. T. Botticella, R. Cartier, T.-W. Chen, A. Cikota, D. Coulter, M. Della Valle, R. J. Foley, A. Gal-Yam, L. Galbany, C. Gall, J. B. Haislip, J. Harmanen, G. Hosseinzadeh, D. A. Howell, E. Y. Hsiao, C. Inserra, S. W. Jha, E. Kankare, C. D. Kilpatrick, V. V. Kouprianov, H. Kuncarayakti, T. J. Maccarone, K. Maguire, S. Mattila, P. A. Mazzali, C. McCully, A. Melandri, N. Morrell, M. M. Phillips, G. Pignata, A. L. Piro, S. Prentice, D. E. Reichart, C. Rojas-Bravo, S. J. Smartt, K. W. Smith, J. Sollerman, M. D. Stritzinger, M. Sullivan, F. Taddia, D. R. Young
    (    A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)


  • The lowest-metallicity type II supernova from the highest-mass red supergiant progenitor  (2018)  
    • Nature Astronomy
     Anderson P, Dessart L, Gutierrez CP, Kruhler T, Galbany L, Jerkstrand A, Smartt SJ, Contreras C, Morrell N, Phillips MM, Stritzinger MD, Hsiao EY, Gonzalez-Gaitan S, Agliozzo C, Castellon S, Chambers KC, Chen TW, Flewelling H, Gonzalez C, Hosseinzadeh G, Huber M, Fraser M, Inserra C, Kankare E, Mattila S, Magnier E, Maguire K, Lowe TB, Sollerman J, Sullivan M, Young DR, Valenti S
    (    A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)


  • The mechanical design of SOXS for the NTT  (2018)  
    • Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
    Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII M. Aliverti, O. Hershko, O. Diner, A. Brucalassi, G. Pignata, H. Kuncarayakti, A. Bianco, S. Campana, R. Claudi, P. Schipani, A. Baruffolo, S. Ben-Ami, F. Biondi, G. Capasso, R. Cosentino, F. D'Alessio, P. D'Avanzo, M. Munari, A. Rubin, S. Scuderi, F. Vitali, J. Achrén, J. A. Araiza-Duran, I. Arcavi, E. Cappellaro, M. Colapietro, M. Della Valle, S. D'Orsi, D. Fantinel, J. Fynbo, A. Gal-Yam, M. Genoni, M. Hirvonen, J. Kotilainen, T. Kumar, M. Landoni, J. Lehti, G. Li Causi, L. Marafatto, S. Mattila, G. Pariani, M. Rappaport, D. Ricci, M. Riva, B. Salasnich, S. Smartt, M. Turatto, R. Zanmar Sanchez
    (    A4 Refereed article in a conference publication )


  • The NIR spectrograph for the new SOXS instrument at the NTT  (2018)  
    • Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
    Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII F. Vitali, M. Aliverti, G. Capasso, F. D'Alessio, M. Munari, M. Riva, S. Scuderi, R. Zanmar Sanchez, S. Campana, P. Schipani, R. Claudi, A. Baruffolo, S. Ben-Ami, F. Biondi, A. Brucalassi, R. Cosentino, D. Ricci, P. D'Avanzo, O. Diner, H. Kuncarayakti, A. Rubin, J. Achrén, J. A. Araiza-Duran, I. Arcavi, A. Bianco, E. Cappellaro, M. Colapietro, M. Della Valle, S. D'Orsi, D. Fantinel, J. Fynbo, A. Gal-Yam, M. Genoni, M. Hirvonen, J. Kotilainen, T. Kumar, M. Landoni, J. Lehti, G. Li Causi, L. Marafatto, S. Mattila, G. Pariani, G. Pignata, M. Rappaport, B. Salasnich, S. Smartt, M. Turatto
    (    A4 Refereed article in a conference publication )


  • The VIS detector system of SOXS  (2018)  
    • Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
    Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII Rosario Cosentino, Matteo Aliverti, Salvatore Scuderi, Sergio Campana, Riccardo Claudi, Pietro Schipani, Andrea Baruffolo, Sagi Ben-Ami, L. H. Mehrgan, Derek Ives, Federico Biondi, Anna Brucalassi, Giulio Capasso, Francesco D'Alessio, Paolo D'Avanzo, Oz Diner, Hanindyo Kuncarayakti, Matteo Munari, Adam Rubin, Fabrizio Vitali, Jani Achrén, José Antonio Araiza-Durán, Iair Arcavi, Andrea Bianco, Enrico Cappellaro, Mirko Colapietro, Massimo Della Valle, Sergio D'Orsi, Daniela Fantinel, Johan Fynbo, Avishay Gal-Yam, Matteo Genoni, Mika Hirvonen, Jari Kotilainen, Tarun Kumar, Marco Landoni, Jussi Lehti, Gianluca Li Causi, Luca Marafatto, Seppo Mattila, Giorgio Pariani, Giuliano Pignata, Michael Rappaport, Davide Ricci, Marco Riva, Bernardo Salasnich, R. Zanmar Sanchez, Stephen Smartt, Massimo Turatto
    (    A4 Refereed article in a conference publication )


  • Unraveling the Infrared Transient VVV-WIT-06: The Case for the Origin as a Classical Nova  (2018)  
    • Astrophysical Journal
     D.P.K. Banerjee, E.Y. Hsiao, T. Diamond, L. Galbany, N. Morrell N, D. Minniti, H. Kuncarayakti, S. Mattila, J. Harmanen
    (    A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)



Last updated on 2025-12-09 at 13:46