Bernadette Rostenkowski works at The Cheesecake Factory and is studying to earn her Ph.D. in microbiology. She is sweet and has a voice like a kewpie doll might.Penny introduces Bernadette to the perpetually-horny and on-the-prowl Howard Wolowitz and they somehow hit it off after discovering they both have overbearing mothers. (When Bernadette gets angry, she shouts and sounds just like Howard's gravelly-voiced off-screen mother.) Howard jokes that her parents' names are Adolf and Eva. Bernadette is one of the few members of the group who is able to keep Sheldon Cooper in check, by treating him like the child he sometimes acts like. Raj Koothrappali has a crush on her, which makes them both uncomfortable.Background: She is Catholic.Bernadette believes she is short because her mother smoked when she was pregnant with her. Her mother later ran an illegal daycare in her basement, and Bernadette was forced to babysit her siblings, which caused Bernadette to dislike children.Her father Mike is a retired police officer. She gives Howard a list of things not to talk about around her dad, including: Gun control, gardeners, foreign people, Jimmy Carter, Sean Penn and recycling.Answers to the nickname Bernie.