The Big Bang Theory: Amy’s 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Career Decisions

Amy Farrah Fowler is a beloved character on the long-running hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Although she is introduced as the potential romantic partner of the lead character, Sheldon Cooper, Amy soon goes on to prove her mettle with a prolific career and of course, her contribution to the theory that won her and Sheldon nothing less than a Nobel Prize.

Amy is undoubtedly smart, but there were times when she made certain questionable decisions or did questionable things that could have ended up ruining her career, or at the very least, landing her in a world of trouble.

10 Worst: Letting Her Research Subject Hang Out In Her Apartment

Amy’s main focus as a neurobiologist was addiction in primates. She was thus working on nicotine addiction in monkeys, one of whom actually got to hang out at her apartment, smoking cigarettes and not necessarily being a very amiable flatmate.

It wasn’t very prudent of her to let one of her test subjects loose in her apartment. In fact, it seems outright unprofessional to bring a test subject home. Although this clearly didn’t hurt her career, it was still unexpectedly dubious behavior from someone like Amy.

9 Best: Moving To Caltech

Amy moved to Caltech in season 7. She started consulting on a neuroscience experiment and naturally hoped that her proximity to Sheldon would make their relationship better.

She was, of course, not made to feel welcome by Sheldon. But the move turned out to be a masterstroke, as she was later involved in the super-asymmetry research and the university put its weight behind her and Sheldon so that they could win.

8 Worst: Napping In The FMRI Machine

In the episode “The Retraction Reaction,” Bernadette visits Amy in her lab at Caltech and compliments the various fancy equipment it’s filled with.

The girls then decide to brag with each other since they are not able to do so in front of their significant others. Amy ends up bragging about how she naps in the expensive fMRI machine and it feels like a million-dollar bunk bed. Just like her treatment of the monkey, this too was highly unprofessional and might have landed her in hot water.

7 Best: Standing Her Ground Against Sheldon’s Interference

Amy stood her ground against Sheldon’s relentless interference when it came to her career. When Sheldon got President Siebert to take Amy off her project so that she could work solely with him on super-asymmetry, Amy was justifiably mad.

She immediately made it clear that she had no intention of giving up her own work, and that she could work on both projects equally.

6 Worst: Hiding Her Success From Sheldon

Sheldon Cooper was an obnoxious man and only someone as patient as Amy could put up with him. Amy made countless compromises to make her relationship work, including agreeing to various arrangements that he draws up, such as the roommate agreement and the relationship agreement.

Amy also hid her growing success from Sheldon, who never took kindly to other people’s achievements. In fact, he was even prone to belittling them. Amy thus kept the things that she was proud of at work a secret from her boyfriend, which might have ended up affecting her confidence in her own work.

5 Best: Getting Published

Amy published several academic papers during her career. Although she was never one to flaunt, she was proud of her achievements, and justifiably so.

Amy’s career thrived slowly but steadily, independent of Sheldon’s. Although together the two went on to create history, she was already established in her own field, a fact that Sheldon would often overlook in his desperation to show off his own genius.

4 Worst: Taking Her Name Off Of The Nobel Nominees List

Unfortunately, one decision that Amy took that would have been disastrous had it really come to pass was to take her name off the Nobel nominees list.

She agreed to do this so that Sheldon was not deprived of his life-long dream of winning the Nobel. Thankfully, Sheldon showed some maturity and didn’t actually let that happen. But in any case, Amy let her emotions cloud her judgment in what went on to be her greatest achievement professionally.

3 Best: Accepting The Princeton Offer

Amy Farrah Fowler was offered a short stint to conduct research at prestigious Princeton University.

She did wonder if she should take up the offer for Sheldon’s sake, but eventually, she did and it was, of course, a very smart decision for anyone keen on adding a feather to their professional cap.

2 Worst: Yelling At The Physicists

Caltech decided that Amy should take charge when engaging in media outreach and other necessary social events as part of the hype surrounding her and Sheldon’s Nobel nomination.

Sadly, their clever plan to keep Sheldon away to avoid embarrassment backfired when Amy lost her cool in front of a room full of the most esteemed crowd of Nobel Laureates. She yelled at the Fermilab physicists, Pemberton and Campbell, who had accidentally proved super-asymmetry and were now in the reckoning for the Nobel. She then got pulled up by HR, who reminded her that she needed to be calm. This one incident could have given Amy a bad repuation and hurt her career in a bad way.

1 Best: Working On Super-Asymmetry

Amy’s best decision in terms of her work and career was her involvement in the research on super-asymmetry. The project began on her and Sheldon’s wedding day, and after disappointments, they found themselves actually having a shot at the highest reward one can hope for—the Nobel.

Had Amy not paid attention or decided to walk out on Sheldon, which might have been understandable given his interference, she would never have become a role model and one of a handful of women scientists to win the Nobel.

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