A modified optical fibre based Mach-Zehnder interferometer was applied as a sensor to detect wiretapping in long transmission optical fibre lines. The signal consisting of short pulses (around 1 ns) was launched to the input of the interferometer based on the polarization maintaining fibres and polarization elements. When the sensing line was undisturbed, detectors registered only a single pulse. The additional two side pulses appear, if the wiretapping attempt took place. For robust detection of any alarm situation we proposed two-criteria algorithm to minimize false alarm rate. Moreover, slow environmental fluctuations were continuously monitored and compensated by polarization controllers. We measured frequency characteristics of the sensor and performed a hundred wiretapping attempts, which proved high performance of the sensor.

Poland has been active in Antarctica for 41 years and modernizes its infrastructure and research program in accordance with the recommendations of the Antarctic Treaty, SCAR, and international recommendations.

Professor Jan Gliński was born on 4 April 1933 in Pińsk. He graduated from the Lublin Higher School of Agriculture, where he obtained his Master of Engineering Degree in Agriculture. In 1964, ten years after beginning his work at the School at the Soil Science Department, he was awarded a doctoral degree for his Copper forms in soils of the Łęczyńsko-Włodawskie Lakeland dissertation, and in 1968 he obtained a postdoctoral degree in the field of agricultural sciences on the basis of his thesis Impact of some soil-forming factors on the content and distribution of micronutrients in soil profiles. In 1971 Jan Gliński began his work at the Department of Agrophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) in Lublin. Three years later he was granted the title of associate professor, and in 1980 he was promoted to full professor. Soon he became the head of the Department, and in 1987 the director of the Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences (in 1986 the Department of Agrophysics, PAS became the Institute of Agrophysics, PAS), the post he held till 2003. Polish Academy of Sciences elected him as a corresponding member in 1991, and in 2002 he became a full member of the Academy. Professor’s scientific achievements consist of over 350 works (i.a. 26 monographs, 220 studies and dissertations, 5 books, 18 patents). His scientific work was focused mainly on the physicochemical soil properties, with particular regard to soil oxidoreductive processes. His soil oxygenation research resulted in two co-authored books: Soil Aeration and its Role for Plants (1985) and Soil Physical Conditions and Plant Roots (1990), published in the US by CRC Press. Professor Gliński was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Life Sciences in Lublin (2010) and from the Lviv National Agrarian University in Dublany and the Volodymyr Dahl East-Ukrainian National University (2011). Professor Jan Gliński was a remarkable scientist and scholar, a kind, warm and friendly man, who always stayed willing to serve us with professional advice and support. His colleagues will remember him as their moral and academic authority. Professor died at the age of 86. The funeral service was held on 10 January 2020 at the Lipowa Cemetery in Lublin. Along with the family, numerous representatives of the Polish Academy of Sciences, academic community, local authorities and Professor’s colleagues and friends attended the ceremony.