RHIC and its upgrade programs

As the first hadron accelerator and collider consisting of two independent superconducting rings RHIC has operated with a wide range of beam energies and particle species. After a brief review of the achieved performance the presentation will give an overview of the plans, challenges and status of machine upgrades, that range from a new heavy ion pre-injector and beam cooling at 100 GeV to a high luminosity electron-ion collider.