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Abstract: The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a new spectrographic instrument, dedicated to the study of Dark Energy, that has been installed on the Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona. DESI consists of a new wide-field optical corrector and a focal plane with 5000 robotic fiber positioners connected to ten three band 500-channel spectrographs with over 240 km of fiber optic cable. In preparation for observations, DESI has completed a 14,000 square degree publicly available photometric legacy survey consisting of 1.6 billion unique sources. DESI completed commissioning on March 15, 2020 just days before Kitt Peak ceased mountain operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With normal operations resumed, DESI is now embarked on a four-month Survey-Validation period to be followed by five years of survey operations. During this time DESI will measure the redshift of over 35 million objects including luminous red galaxies, emission line galaxies and quasar Ly-a forest spectra, creating the most detailed 3-dimensional map of the universe to date. With this map, DESI will utilize Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and Redshift Space Distortions to dramatically improve our understanding of the nature of Dark Energy.