Three Northwestern professors at the frontiers of research in their fields have been given a chance to push the boundaries further.

Hui Cao, assistant professor of physics and astronomy; Hilary Godwin, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology; and Eric Zaslow, assistant professor of mathematics, will each receive $40,000 over two years from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The fellowships can be applied toward areas they deem most important to their research.

The three are among 104 Sloan Fellows selected from more than 400 nominees across the United States and Canada. The fellowships go to young college and university faculty members who are engaged in scientific and economic research.

“I feel honored,” Cao said. “Many professors I really respect are Sloan Fellows. It’s a prestigious award and I’m happy to get it.”

Godwin declined to comment and Zaslow was unavailable for comment.

Cao said she will use the money toward her research of lasers. She is currently finding ways to generate coherent light from such disorderly systems as semiconductor powders and polycrystalline films.

She said she hopes to improve the lasers — which are used for data storage in such devices as compact disc players — by making them more efficient and thus less expensive.

Already having achieved results that garnered attention from national journals such as New Scientist, Cao said she hopes to investigate the “very deep physics” behind her research.

Cao, who received her doctorate from Stanford University in 1997 and joined NU’s faculty that same year, also received a Packard Fellowship worth $625,000 over five years, also on her first try.

Godwin’s current research includes finding out how metal ions affect certain biological systems. She is focusing on the roles that calcium and zinc play in neurological signaling and development.

She received her doctorate in chemistry from Stanford and came to NU in 1996. Several awards have supported Godwin’s research at NU, including grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Zaslow is working on deriving mathematical relationships from a fundamental idea of physics called string theory.

His research also focuses on “mirror symmetry,” a concept in which two seemingly different math descriptions actually have identical structure.

Zaslow earned his doctorate from Harvard University and came to NU in 1998.