Seppo Mattila
Department of Physics and Astronomy sepmat@utu.fi +358 29 450 4518 +358 50 412 5859 Vesilinnantie 5 Turku |
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.
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
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.
- SOXS AIT: a paradigm for system engineering of a medium class telescope instrument (2022)
- Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
- SOXS mechanical integration and verification in Italy (2022)
- Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
- Spectroscopic classification of SN 2022gnp by NUTS2 (NOT Un-biased Transient Survey-2) #15320 (2022) Astronomer's Telegram Williams S, Kankare E, Mattila S, Matilainen K, Reynolds T; on behalf of the NUTS2 collaboration
- Status of the PSF Reconstruction Work Package for MICADO@ELT (2022)
- Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
- The First Data Release of CNIa0.02-A Complete Nearby (Redshift <0.02) Sample of Type Ia Supernova Light Curves* (2022)
- Astrophysical Journal Supplement
- The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO): Prototype performance and prospects for transient science (2022)
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- The integration and alignment phase for the Acquisition and Guiding System of SOXS (2022)
- Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
- The internal alignment and validation of a powered ADC for SOXS (2022)
- Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
- The morphology of the ejecta of SN 1987A at 31 years from 1150 to 10000 Å (2022)
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- The nuclear transient AT 2017gge: a tidal disruption event in a dusty and gas-rich environment and the awakening of a dormant SMBH (2022)
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- The Quality Check system architecture for Son-Of-X-Shooter SOXS (2022)
- Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
José Antonio, Arcavi Iair, Brucalassi Anna, Bruch Rachel, Cappellaro Enrico, Colapietro Mirko, Della Valle Massimo, De Pascale Marco, Di Benedetto Rosario, D'Orsi Sergio, Gal-Yam Avishay, Hernandez-Diaz Marcos, Kotilainen Jari, Li Causi Gianluca, Mattila Seppo, Oggioni Luca, Pariani Giorgio, Rappaport Michael, Radhakrishnan Kalyan, Ricci Davide, Riva Marco, Salsanich Bernardo, Sanchez Ricardo Zanmar, Stritzinger Maximilian, Ventura Hector - The Son-Of-X-shooter (SOXS) Data-Reduction Pipeline (2022)
- Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
- The SUNBIRD survey: the K-band luminosity functions of young massive clusters in intensely star-forming galaxies (2022)
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- The vacuum and cryogenics system of the SOXS spectrograph (2022)
- Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
- Transient Classification Report for 2022-11-10 #2022-3265 (2022) Transient Name Server Classification Report Pyykkinen N, Fardella V, Rikala M, Toppari E, Gupta S, Moran S, Gutiérrez C, Kangas T, Wlliams S, Kankare E, Mattila S
- Transient Classification Report for 2022-11-10 #2022-3266 (2022) Transient Name Server Classification Report Fardella V, Pyykkinen N, Rikala M, Toppari E, Gupta S, Moran S, Gutiérrez C, Kangas T, Wlliams S, Kankare E, Mattila S
- Accretion disc cooling and narrow absorption lines in the tidal disruption event AT2019dsg (2021)
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- ASASSN-18am/SN 2018gk: an overluminous Type IIb supernova from a massive progenitor (2021)
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- ATCA radio non-detection of the TDE AT2021blz #14697 (2021) Astronomer's Telegram Perez-Torres M, Ryder S, Kundu E, Marnoch L, Mattila S, Horesh A, Wevers T, Roy R, Schulze S, Mandel I, Arcavi I
- Core-collapse supernova subtypes in luminous infrared galaxies (2021)
- Astronomy and Astrophysics