Development of activation analysis of China

The application fields of activation analysis has spread very fast in China. Up to the mid sixties the thermal neutron and the charged particle activation analysis were mainly applied to determine the trace elements for material sciences. Since the later of seventies many work in geological and environmental sciences have been completed. A large amount of publications on activation analysis appeared in these fields. Also there is a growth of activation analysis application in biology and medicine in recent years. A lot of standard reference materials have been determined using activation analysis method recently. In addition, activation analysis has also found its application in archaeology and forensic sciences. (author)