Here are a couple of useful additions for serialization. std::complex is pretty trivial, and a no-brainer IMHO. I implemented support for ublas::vector unbounded_array only. Would be nice to do more, but that's all I need at the moment. #include <boost/archive/binary_oarchive.hpp> #include <boost/archive/binary_iarchive.hpp> #include <boost/serialization/split_free.hpp> template<typename Archive, typename T> inline void save (Archive &ar, const std::complex<T>& z, const unsigned int) { ar << real (z); ar << imag (z); } template<typename Archive, typename T> inline void load (Archive &ar, std::complex<T>& z, const unsigned int) { T i, r; ar >> r; ar >> i; z = std::complex<T> (r, i); } namespace boost { namespace serialization { template<class Archive, class T> inline void serialize (Archive &ar, std::complex<T>& z, const unsigned int file_version) { boost::serialization::split_free (ar, z, file_version); } } } template<class Archive, class U> inline void save (Archive &ar, const vector<U> &v, const unsigned int) { unsigned int count = v.size(); ar << count; typename vector<U>::const_iterator it = v.begin(); while (count-- > 0) { ar << *it++; } } template<class Archive, class U> inline void load (Archive &ar, vector<U> &v, const unsigned int) { unsigned int count; ar >> count; v.resize (count); typename vector<U>::iterator it = v.begin(); while (count-- > 0) { ar >> *it++; } } namespace boost { namespace serialization { template<class Archive, class U> inline void serialize (Archive &ar, vector<U>& v, const unsigned int file_version) { boost::serialization::split_free (ar, v, file_version); } } }