Sallie Ann Watkins (1922–2011, also known as Sister Mary Howard) was an American physics educator, academic administrator, Catholic nun, and activist.
While continuing to hold her position at Notre Dame College, she went to the Catholic University of America for graduate study in physics from 1954 until 1958, receiving a master's degree and completing a Ph.D. with the dissertation Ultrasonic Absorption and Velocity in Liquid Monochloroethane.
There, she moved into academic administration as the chair of the department of physics, dean of the university's College of Science and Mathematics, and its assistant vice president for research.
[1] After a term in 1987 as the first senior education fellow of the American Institute of Physics, in Washington, DC,[2] she retired as professor emerita in 1988.
[5][3] Watkins was the 2001 recipient of the Robert A. Millikan award of the American Association of Physics Teachers.