Returning to New Zealand, she became a researcher at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in 1962. In 1964, she took a Fulbright scholarship to Harvard University, and she completed her PhD there in 1967. In 1968, she married and moved with her husband to the Sydney North Shore, and Fama became a junior lecturer at the University of Sydney. In 1970, they returned to New Zealand, and Fama returned to her position at the DSIR. She was appointed to the University of Waikato as a temporary senior lecturer in 1980.
