Ralph Siu

Ralph Gun Hoy Siu (1917 – December 29, 1998) was an American scholar, military and civil servant, and author. Siu served as the first Director of the National Institute of Justice from 1968 to 1969.

On December 29, 1998, Ralph Siu died of congestive heart failure at George Washington University Hospital at the age of 80.

In 1991, the International Society for Panetics was founded by Ralph Siu and sixty other scientists, physicians, business leaders, scholars, artists and writers from several countries, including Kenneth Boulding and Johan Galtung. The society was dedicated to the study and development of ways to reduce the infliction of human suffering by individuals, corporations, governments, professions, social groups and other institutions. It issued a journal, Panetics, and sponsored the annual Ralph G. H. Siu Memorial Lecture in Washington, D.C., featuring a prominent speaker on a subject of concern to panetics. In 2009, Siu's collected writings were donated to the University of Toledo on behalf of the International Society for Panetics.

In 196,8 Siu became Associate Administrator of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration with the Department of Justice and was subsequently nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to direct the newly-created National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. However, he was not confirmed and the administration changed after the 1968 election, so he retired in March, 1969.

Siu wrote several books in the field of management, including The Tao of Science (1957), and The Craft of Power (1979). In 1988, the Journal of Humanistic Psychology published an article by Ralph Siu entitled "Panetics—The Study of the Infliction of Suffering".

In 1949, Siu met Irene I-lien Hsu. On February 12, 1950, they were married in Yonkers, New York.

After earning his Ph.D, Siu joined the Quartermaster Corps and headed a team of researchers that developed new fabrics, clothing and equipment for jungle use. As the Quartermaster Corps’ Director of Laboratories and Chief Scientific and Technical Director for more than a decade (1948–1962), Siu led numerous projects, including pioneer efforts on food irradiation – a key component of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace program. In 1961, he received the National Career Civil Service Award. From 1962 to 1966, Siu served as Scientific Director, for the Research Division of the United States Army Materiel Command. He then became Deputy Director of the Materiel Command and was stationed in Washington, D.C. from 1966 to 1968.

Siu was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1917. Siu obtained his bachelor's degree in chemistry and master's degree in plant physiology. from the University of Hawaii. He then earned a Ph.D in bio-organic chemistry from the California Institute of Technology.