Howard Wolowitz - Work

Work

Unlike Leonard, Sheldon, and Raj, Howard lacks a Ph.D. and is sometimes derided about it, especially by Sheldon, Sheldon's girlfriend Amy Farrah Fowler, and the department head, Dr. Gablehauser. He defends himself by pointing out that he has a master's degree from MIT (although he first studied in medical school but was dropped out since he was terrified of blood). Because he does not have a doctorate, Dr. Gablehauser refers to him as "mister" while referring to his friends as doctors, and Sheldon often says that he is the least smart of the four "nerd" characters, as shown in "The Bus Pants Utilization", where the guys develop an iPhone app and Sheldon refers to them as "three geniuses and their friend Howard".

Howard is usually seen working on equipment to be used in NASA missions and the International Space Station, though many times he is careless about it, and has "access" to high-tech surveillance and NASA gear. In the first episode, Howard mentioned working on the design of a satellite that orbits a moon of Jupiter taking high-resolution photos.

Having worked on the Mars rover project, he invited his date, Dr. Stephanie Barnett, to drive it at a secret facility. Instead, the rover became stuck in a Martian ditch and he spent the rest of the night with Sheldon and Raj trying to undo the damage and get the rover out of the ditch. When this proved unsuccessful, he decided to erase the hard drives of the facility and destroy all the files connected to his treachery to cover up his meddling, only to later find out that the rover had discovered the first clear signs of life on Mars.

The rover incident was kept a close secret, until the Season 4 episode "The Apology Insufficiency", when he made it onto a new team for the Defense Department laser-equipped surveillance satellite, Howard was not granted security clearance and was took out of the team after Sheldon revealed the rover incident to an investigating FBI agent.

On another occasion, Howard worked on a zero-gravity human-waste disposal system, essentially a "space toilet", that was deployed in the International Space Station. He later realized the equipment had a structural weakness (the toilet would explode after 10 flushes) and again sought the help of his friends to correct it. The solution proved unsuccessful and an incident on the station ensued (Raj referred to this as the "zero-gravity human-waste distribution system"). The end of the episode showed the ISS astronauts leaving the station for an "unscheduled" space walk.

Being the engineer among his physicist friends, he assumes the role of leader for small hands-on projects. He was the primary force behind "M.O.N.T.E.", a killer robot designed to enter a robot fighting competition. The robot was destroyed by Barry Kripke's own robot, the "Kripke Krippler", in an unofficial match before the start of competition.

In the season 4 premiere, Howard developed a robotic arm for the International Space Station. Realizing how much it felt like an actual arm, he used the arm to masturbate, only to get the arm stuck on his penis. He called Leonard and Raj, but neither were willing to get too "hands on" and help free him from the arm's grip. He was afraid to use the computer controlling the arm as it thought it was holding a screwdriver and would start twisting if he un-paused the program. Eventually, Leonard and Raj took Howard to the hospital, where the attending nurse went against Howard's fears and turned off the computer, freeing Howard. The episode's tag scene implied that Howard tried to use the arm to masturbate again and ended up in the same predicament. Howard likely has the most hands-on and mechanical aptitude of the four as well. It appears he has soldering and electrical/wiring abilities as shown when he built the robot fighter M.O.N.T.E.

Howard visited the International Space Station as a Payload Specialist on Expedition 31. He has the unwanted astronaut nickname "Froot Loops" (he had wanted the nickname "Rocket Man" and to that end installed the ring tone for Elton John's song "Rocket Man", but another astronaut overheard Howard's mother telling Howard that his Froot Loops were getting soggy during a NASA Skype conversation). At first NASA canceled his flight to a very relieved Howard, but then the mission was moved up causing Howard and Bernadette to move up their wedding. A very nervous Howard is launched into space. His sixth season experience is not great since his fellow astronaut play tricks on him and his asthma acts up. Even his return to earth is underwhelmed and underplayed when most everyone gets tired of hearing about it.

Sheldon often critiques his work, calling him a "space plumber," and tells him he will not succeed. After Howard brags about being in space, Sheldon, being jelaous, angrily comments "Monkeys went to space".