Bruce Edwards Ivins (April 22, 1946 – July 29, 2008) was a microbiologist, vaccinologist, senior biodefense researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland and a key investigator in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

He apparently committed suicide prior to formal charges being filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for an alleged criminal connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks. At a news conference at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on August 6, 2008, FBI and DOJ officials formally announced that the Government had concluded that Ivins was likely to have been solely responsible for "the deaths of five persons, and the injury of dozens of others, resulting from the mailings of several anonymous letters to members of Congress and members of the media in September and October, 2001, which letters contained Bacillus anthracis, commonly referred to as anthrax."

Bruce Ivins was born in Lebanon, Ohio to Thomas Randall Ivins and Mary Johnson Knight, as the youngest of three sons. His father, a pharmacist, owned a drugstore and was active in the local Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce, while his mother stayed at home and participated in the Parent-Teacher Association. The family went regularly to Lebanon Presbyterian Church.