Ivan Loveridge Bennett, Jr., M.D., served as acting president of New York University (NYU) from 1979 to 1981, when John C. Sawhill left the position to serve as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Bennett was succeeded by John Brademas.

Dr. Bennett held numerous administrative positions at NYU before serving as acting president. On January 21, 1969, Bennett was appointed Vice-President for Health Affairs and Director of the NYU Medical Center. On May 8, 1970, he was appointed director of the School of Medicine and Director of the Post-Graduate Medical School. (Bennett was the first person to hold both positions simultaneously.) In 1970 he became Dean of the New York University School of Medicine; in 1973 he was appointed Provost of the New York University Medical Center; and in 1976 Bennett was named Executive Vice-President for Health Affairs. Bennett did not seek election as President of New York University in 1981, opting instead to return to the Medical Center.

Bennett's career as a medical researcher, professor, and administrator had been well established by the time he arrived at New York University. He was an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at Yale University from 1952 to 1954. He then moved to Johns Hopkins University, where he served as an Associate Professor of Medicine until 1957, when he was made a full Professor. In 1958 Bennett was named the Baxley Professor of Pathology and the director of that department. Bennett took a leave of absence from Johns Hopkins University in 1966 to become the Deputy Director and, later, Acting Director of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's Office of Science and Technology.