Ralph Benedict D'Agostino Sr. (August 16, 1940 – September 27, 2023) was an American biostatistician and professor of Mathematics/Statistics, Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Boston University.

He completed his Ph.D. in statistics at Harvard University under the joint supervision of William Cochran and Frederick Mosteller in 1968.

He contributed an article to the first edition titled "The Logistic Function as an Aid in the Detection of Acute Coronary Disease in Emergency Patients (a Case Study)".

A selection of quotations from his students, collected when he was awarded the Boston University Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching include the following: “Professor D’Agostino made it possible for me to understand statistics, something that I thought was impossible.” “Professor D’Agostino’s clarity, obvious intelligence, patience, and wry sense of humor has changed my attitude towards statistics from acceptance to enjoyment.” “I now enjoy, and enjoy using, statistics—something that I had never before imagined.”[11] D'Agostino has 745 peer-reviewed papers and with over 305,000 citations in Google Scholar is among the top five most cited researchers in the fields of Statistics, Biostatistics, and Cardiovascular Disease.

[1] He was honored with the FDA Advisory Committee Service Award in 2008, received a Special Citation from the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner in 1981 and 1995, and was named Statistician of the Year by the Boston chapter of the American Heart Association in 1993.

D'Agostino, Jr., is a biostatistics professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and fellow of the American Statistical Association (elected 2013).

His granddaughter, Lucy D'Agostino McGowan is also a biostatistician and an assistant professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences at Wake Forest University.