Robert Spencer Corruccini (born May 21, 1949) is an American anthropologist, distinguished professor, Smithsonian Institution Research Fellow, Human Biology Council Fellow (now the Human Biology Association), and the 1994 Outstanding Scholar at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. As a medical and dental anthropologist, Corruccini is most noted for his work on the theory of malocclusion and his extensive work in a slave cemetery at Newton Plantation in Barbados. Academic life Corruccini earned his B.A. in Anthropology and Geology at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1971, and his Ph.D. in Anthropology and Paleontology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975. He was named an Aleš Hrdlička Scholar in 1975-1976 by the Smithsonian Institution, later becoming a communications coordinator for the Universities Space Research Association in Boulder, Colorado. In 1977, Corruccini returned to his alma mater, teaching anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 1978, he joined the Anthropology Department at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale as a tenure-track assistant professor, later earning a full professorship in 1986. It was at this university where Corruccini met, and later married, archaeologist Carol A. Morrow. Morrow is now professor of anthropology at Southeast Missouri State University. Human dentition As a dental anthropologist, Corruccini is most noted for his work on malocclusion, though his research is not limited to any particular aspect of human or non-human primate dentition or biology. Much of his early fieldwork in dentition and many of his 250-plus publications focused on twins, immigrants, Australian Aborigines, and on the Indian subcontinent, with this research being funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Leakey Foundation. However, Corruccini's research into malocclusion led him to conduct broad and comprehensive studies among a diverse number of subjects, including an isolate population of European-Americans in rural Kentucky, the Pima Tribe, natives of Peru, hominoids, and modern Chinese. Theory of malocclusion Corruccini's long term research into the origins of malocclusion led him to the conclusion that not all cases could be solely attributed to genetic factors. In 1982, Corruccini and Beecher published the results of a study on squirrel monkeys that revealed that diet may play a significant role in occlusal health. Corruccini later asserted that the consumption of a western diet, or "Industrial Diet" may be one of the factors responsible for the swelling epidemic of malocclusions now appearing in modern human populations in western countries. Subsequent studies conducted by other scientists confirm