From the Bevalac to RHIC: Recent results and future perspectives

There has been considerable theoretical progress and experimental development in the study of relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions towards understanding the equation of state of nuclear, hadronic and partonic matter. At high energies, research has concentrated on the search for the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and possible chiral symmetry restoration. In these lectures I comment on similarities and trends observed in recent results over a wide range of incident energies and attempt to provide a common framework where possible. I also point out future perspectives in the search for the QGP at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), and in Particular focus on one experiment to be undertaken