Seppo Mattila
 

Department of Physics and Astronomy

sepmat@utu.fi

+358 29 450 4518

+358 50 412 5859

Vesilinnantie 5

Turku


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

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:

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



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.



  
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  • The vacuum and cryogenics system of the SOXS spectrograph  (2022)  
    • Proceedings of SPIE : the International Society for Optical Engineering
    Proceedings of SPIE: Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation V Scuderi S, Bellassai G, Di Benedetto R, Martinetti E, Micciche A, Nicotra C, Occhipinti G, Scire C, Aliverti M, Genoni M, Vitali F, Campana S, Claudi R, Schipani P, Baruffolo A, Ben-Ami S, Capasso G, Cosentino R, D'Alessio F, D'Avanzo P, Hershko O, Kuncarayakti H, Landoni M, Munari M, Pignata G, Radhakrishnan K, Rubin A, Young D, Achren J, Araiza-Duran JA, Arcavi I, Battaini F, Brucalassi A, Bruch R, Cappellaro E, Colapietro M, Della Valle M, D'Orsi S, Gal-Yam A, Diaz MH, Kotilainen J, Li Causi G, Marty L, Mattila S, Rappaport M, Ricci D, Riva M, Salasnich B, Smartt S, Sanchez RZ, Stritzinger M, Ventura HP


  • 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
     Cannizzaro G, Wevers T, Jonker PG, Perez-Torres MA, Moldon J, Mata-Sanchez D, Leloudas G, Pasham DR, Mattila S, Arcavi I, French KD, Onori F, Inserra C, Nicholl M, Gromadzki M, Chen TW, Muller-Bravo TE, Short P, Anderson JP, Young DR, Gendreau KC, Arzoumanian Z, Lowenstein M, Remillard R, Roy R, Hiramatsu D


  • ASASSN-18am/SN 2018gk: an overluminous Type IIb supernova from a massive progenitor  (2021)  
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
     Bose S, Dong SB, Kochanek CS, Stritzinger MD, Ashall C, Benetti S, Falco E, Filippenko AV, Pastorello A, Prieto JL, Somero A, Sukhbold T, Zhang JB, Auchettl K, Brink TG, Brown JS, Chen P, Fiore A, Grupe D, Holoien TWS, Lundqvist P, Mattila S, Mutel R, Pooley D, Post RS, Reddy N, Reynolds TM, Shappee BJ, Stanek KZ, Thompson TA, Villanueva S, Zheng WK


  • 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
     Kankare E., Efstathiou A., Kotak R., Kool E.C., Kangas T., O'Neill D., Mattila S., Väisänen P., Ramphul R., Mogotsi M., Ryder S.D., Parker S., Reynolds T., Fraser M., Pastorello A., Cappellaro E., Mazzali P.A., Ochner P., Tomasella L., Turatto M., Kotilainen J., Kuncarayakti H., Perez-Torres M.A., Randriamanakoto Z., Romero-Cañizales C., Berton M., Cartier R., Chen T.-W., Galbany L., Gromadzki M., Inserra C., Maguire K., Moran S., Müller-Bravo T.E., Nicholl M., Reguitti A., Young D.R.


  • Erratum: Low luminosity Type II supernovae - III. SN 2018hwm, a faint event with an unusually long plateau (vol 501, pg 1059, 2021)  (2021)  
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
     Reguitti A, Pumo ML, Mazzali PA, Pastorello A, Pignata G, Elias-Rosa N, Prentice SJ, Reynolds T, Benetti S, Mattila S, Kuncarayakti H, Rodriguez O


  • How low can you go? SN 2018zd as a low-mass Fe core-collapse supernova  (2021)  
    • arXiv.org
     Callis E., Fraser M., Pastorello A., Dong Subo, Brennan S. J., Chen P., Bose S., Reynolds T., Salmon L., Jonker P., Benetti S., Berton M., Cannizzaro G., Cappellaro E., Congiu E., Dyrbye S., Eappachen D., Elias-Rosa N., Gromadzki M., Gutiérrez C. P., Holmbo S., Holoien T. W. S., Itagaki K., Kankare E., Mattila S., Mutel R., Ochner P., Post R. S., Prieto J., Reguitti A., Roth T., Ryon J., Sagués-Carracedo A., Shappee B. J., Siviero A., Stassun K. G., Stritzinger M., Tomasella L., Villanueva S. Jr., Wevers T., Wiggins P.


  • Light-curve classification with recurrent neural networks for GOTO: dealing with imbalanced data  (2021)  
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
     Burhanudin UF, Maund JR, Killestein T, Ackley K, Dyer MJ, Lyman J, Ulaczyk K, Cutter R, Mong YL, Steeghs D, Galloway DK, Dhillon V, O'Brien P, Ramsay G, Noysena K, Kotak R, Breton RP, Nuttall L, Palle E, Pollacco D, Thrane E, Awiphan S, Chote P, Chrimes A, Daw E, Duffy C, Eyles-Ferris R, Gompertz B, Heikkila T, Irawati P, Kennedy MR, Levan A, Littlefair S, Makrygianni L, Mata-Sanchez D, Mattila S, McCormac J, Mkrtichian D, Mullaney J, Sawangwit U, Stanway E, Starling R, Strom P, Tooke S, Wiersema K


  • Low-luminosity Type II supernovae - III. SN 2018hwm, a faint event with an unusually long plateau  (2021)  
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
     Reguitti A, Pumo ML, Mazzali PA, Pastorello A, Pignata G, Elias-Rosa N, Prentice SJ, Reynolds T, Benetti S, Rodrìguez O, Mattila S, Kuncarayakti H


  • Processing GOTO data with the Rubin Observatory LSST Science Pipelines I: Production of coadded frames  (2021)  
    • Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
     Mullaney J. R., Makrygianni L., Dhillon V., Littlefair S., Ackley K., Dyer M., Lyman J., Ulaczyk K., Cutter R., Mong Y.-L., Steeghs D., Galloway D. K., O’Brien P., Ramsay G., Poshyachinda S., Kotak R., Nuttall L., Pallé E., Pollacco D., Thrane E., Aukkaravittayapun S., Awiphan S., Breton R., Burhanudin U., Chote P., Chrimes A., Daw E., Duffy C., Eyles-Ferris R., Gompertz B., Heikkilä T., Irawati P., Kennedy M., Killestein T., Levan A., Marsh T., Mata-Sanchez D., Mattila S., Maund J., McCormac J., Mkrtichian D., Rol E., Sawangwit U., Stanway E., Starling R., Tooke S., Wiersema K.


  • Processing GOTO survey data with the Rubin Observatory LSST Science Pinelines II: Forced Photometry and lightcurves  (2021)  
    • Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
     Makrygianni L, Mullaney J, Dhillon V, Littlefair S, Ackley K, Dyer MJ, Lyman J, Ulaczyk K, Cutter R, Mong YL, Steeghs D, Galloway DK, O'Brien P, Ramsay G, Poshyachinda S, Kotak R, Nuttall L, Palle E, Pollacco D, Thrane E, Aukkaravittayapun S, Awiphan S, Breton RP, Burhanudin U, Chote P, Chrimes A, Daw E, Duffy C, Eyles-Ferris R, Gompertz B, Heikkila T, Irawati P, Kennedy M, Killestein T, Levan A, Marsh T, Mata-Sanchez D, Mattila S, Maund J, McCormac J, Mkrtichian D, Rol E, Sawangwit U, Stanway E, Starling R, Strom PA, Tooke S, Wiersema K


  • Radio detection of the TDE AT 2021sdu at 5.1 GHz with e-MERLIN #15097  (2021)  Astronomer's Telegram Moldon Javier, Perez-Torres Miguel, Kool Erik, Mattila Seppo, Reynolds Thomas


  • Revisiting the progenitor of the low-luminosity type II-plateau supernova, SN 2008bk  (2021)  
    • Astronomy and Astrophysics
     O'Neill D., Kotak R., Fraser M., Mattila S., Pietrzyński G., Prieto J. L.


  • Searching for Fermi GRB optical counterparts with the prototype Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)  (2021)  
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
     Mong Y.L., Ackley K., Galloway D.K., Dyer M., Cutter R., Brown M.J.I., Lyman J., Ulaczyk K., Steeghs D., Dhillon V., O'Brien P., Ramsay G., Noysena K., Kotak R., Breton R., Nuttall L., Pallé E., Pollacco D., Thrane E., Awiphan S., Burhanudin U., Chote P., Chrimes A., Daw E., Duffy C., Eyles-Ferris R., Gompertz B., Heikkilä T., Irawati P., Kennedy M., Killestein T., Levan A., Littlefair S., Makrygianni L., Marsh T., Mata-Sanchez D., Mattila S., Maund J., McCormac J., Mkrtichian D., Mullaney J., Rol E., Sawangwit U., Stanway E., Starling R., Strøm P., Tooke S., Wiersema K.


  • SN 2013ai: A Link between Hydrogen-rich and Hydrogen-poor Core-collapse Supernovae  (2021)  
    • Astrophysical Journal
     Davis S, Pessi PJ, Fraser M, Ertini K, Martinez L, Hoeflich P, Hsiao EY, Folatelli G, Ashall C, Phillips MM, Anderson JP, Bersten M, Englert B, Fisher A, Benetti S, Bunzel A, Burns C, Chen TW, Contreras C, Elias-Rosa N, Falco E, Galbany L, Kirshner RP, Kumar S, Lu J, Lyman JD, Marion GH, Mattila S, Maund J, Morrell N, Seron J, Stritzinger M, Shahbandeh M, Sullivan M, Suntzeff NB, Young DR


  • Star formation and nuclear activity in luminous infrared galaxies: an infrared through radio review  (2021)  
    • Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
     Pérez-Torres Miguel, Mattila Seppo, Alonso-Herrero Almudena, Aalto Susanne, Efstathiou Andreas


  • The double-peaked Type Ic supernova 2019cad: another SN 2005bf-like object  (2021)  
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
     Gutierrez CP, Bersten MC, Orellana M, Pastorello A, Ertini K, Folatelli G, Pignata G, Anderson JP, Smartt S, Sullivan M, Pursiainen M, Inserra C, Elias-Rosa N, Fraser M, Kankare E, Moran S, Reguitti A, Reynolds TM, Stritzinger M, Burke J, Frohmaier C, Galbany L, Hiramatsu D, Howell DA, Kuncarayakti H, Mattila S, Muller-Bravo T, Pellegrino C, Smith M


  • Transient Classification Report for 2021-05-05 #2021-1480  (2021)  Transient Name Server Classification Report Moran Shane, Kotak Rubina, Mattila Seppo, Fraser Morgan



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