Anny Buchstab Coury

Anny Buchstab Coury is a Ukrainian-Jewish petroleum geologist.

Early life and education Due to the start of the Second World War, her parents left Ukraine to find safety in Lille, France, where Coury was born in 1929. As a Jew born in the 1930s, Coury had to endure many difficulties during her childhood, living in constant fear of the totalitarian dictatorship forming in Germany. Eventually, her family was forced to flee to Paris, France. Throughout her childhood, Coury and her family proceeded to live like nomads. They moved to several different cities within France and Spain, then finally settled down in Portugal for several years. Coury would spend the majority of her life residing in the state of Texas.

Anny Buchstab Coury demonstrated admirable ambition and commitment to her studies, graduating from high school in Fort Worth, Texas at only 15 years old. Thus, due to her position that was mainly tasked with administration work, she moved on to find another job. By utilizing her rock carving skills, Coury was able to fund a 4-year trip to France with her family by selling her rock art pieces in 1967. She wanted to show the environment she grew up in to her family and hoped that they could also learn French.

Upon her arrival back in the United States of America in 1971, Coury received a job from the United States Geological Survey, where she then went on to work for 20 years, with a project leader position. In this position, Coury would lead a group of researchers on a project named "Offshore Mineral Potential of the U.S. and the World."

In 1974, Coury traveled to Denver to work for Shell Oil where she had to create a map that captured 600 basins all around the world. This project is known as the "Basins of the World". Through 1989–1994, Coury continued working on this project, where she was asked to become a chief editor of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) series with the same name as her project - Basins of the World. During this time, Coury continued to conduct research in the oil and gas field at the United States Geological Survey where she was promoted to the Assistant Chief geologist.

Finally, she retired in 1995. In 2017, Coury was honored for her lengthy career, and accomplishments at the 2017 Houston American Association of Petroleum Geologists conference.