OVERVIEW OF BEAM STUDIES AT RHIC DURING THE YEAR 2000 RUN.

During the Year 2000 run, RHIC has been commissioned and brought into operation reaching 10% of the design luminosity. A program for beam studies and machine development has been setup before the run with the goal of improving machine performance. The plan was implemented during the run in a series of beam studies, focusing initially on interaction region correction, intrabeam scattering, 3-dimensional beam reconstruction and luminosity optimization. An overview of the results is given with pointers to individual contributions where data are presented in more detail. The program for dedicated machine development at RHIC during the Year 2001 is reviewed and discussed