Highlights on Hadronic Physics from Heavy Ion Physics

The program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory has been a resounding success, leading to qualitative advances in our understanding of both the properties of the universe in its earliest stages and the spin of the proton. The study of this matter, created in the laboratory through collisions between nuclei at high energies, is entering into a new, quantitative phase with upgrades to both the detectors and the collider, termed RHIC II. Limitations of current measurements will be reviewed, along with the upcoming methods to produce high precision quantification of the properties of the matter produced at RHIC.