The RHIC program and its impact on the EIC

The nuclear science programs with the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) rely crucially on the advanced capabilities and versatility of the collider facility and of the general purpose detectors at the beam collision regions. These are key factors to the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), which will succeed RHIC as its mission is coming to completion. This presentation will feature selected highlights from the RHIC program with an emphasis on those relying on polarized beams. I will discuss how RHIC has impacted the fundamental knowledge and understanding of nucleon structure and interaction dynamics and how this connects to science at the future EIC.