Abstract: Slow-servo diamond turning has revolutionized what is possible in optical fabrication. As a result, optical design provides new horizons where freeform surfaces may offer new degrees of freedom. In this talk I will provide a brief history of the emergence of freeform optics and point to a growing customer base. I will then discuss recent advances in surface shape descriptions for freeform optics from phi-polynomials to multicentric radial basis functions. Finally, I will show how freeform surfaces may provide in one case study a factor of 10 in field area. Insight into the correction of aberrations will be provided and a metrology approach to testing freeform surfaces will be discussed. Dr. Rolland is Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical & Biomedical Engineering; Associate Director of the R.E. Hopkins Center for Optical Design & Engineering. Professor Rolland's central research interests are in the fields of optical instrumentation and system engineering. Research areas of interest are (1) Optical System Design for Imaging and Non-imaging Optics (2) Physics-based modeling, and (3) Image Quality Assessment. These areas have been applied to Eyewear Displays for Augmented Reality, Optical Coherence Imaging, Biomedical and Medical Modeling and Simulation, Alignment of Optical Systems, and 3D Velocimetry.