Her parents were of Ukrainian descent; her father was director of a bank, and her mother was a research chemist at Lvov University.
She was accepted and moved to Scotland, surprising the professor who had offered her a place, as he had believed her application was from a Polish man.
She lived in Blackheath, London during the latter part of the Second World War, volunteering as an air raid warden in the evenings.
During this time she was working on research for the PLUTO Pipeline Under The Ocean project and on a secret airplane guidance system.
In 1981, Watkins attended the International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES) in Bombay, combining it with travel around India and Nepal.
Watkins was a Liveryman and senior steward of the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers, and became a Freeman of the City of London.
She held tea parties for women engineering students at City University and encouraged them to join WES for the support it could offer their careers.
[1] On 22 February 1946, Ziff married Flight lieutenant Thomas "Tom" Brown Watkins (1921–1961), of the Royal Air Force and Leith, at St Saviour's Church, Lewisham.