The two companion volumes of Advances in Polymer Science - Volumes 150 and 151 - deal with recent progress in the characterization of polymers, mostly in solution but also at surfaces. The contributions comprise multidimensional chromatography for elucidation, the composition and the chain length distribution of copolymers, capillary electrophoresis of synthetic water-soluble polymers including polyelectrolytes, field flow fractionation techniques for quick and reliable separation and characterization of broad polymer samples and a novel application of thermal grating experiments for probing Brownian and thermal diffusion. Finally the rapid development of atomic forces techniques is reviewed with particular emphasis on the visualization of macromolecules and the patterning of surfaces.