Roberto Ivens (June 12, 1850 - January 28, 1898) was a Portuguese naval officer, explorer, cartographer, and colonial administrator. Born in the Azores to a Portuguese mother and a British-American descended father, Ivens attended the Escola da Marinha in Lisbon before embarking on a naval career. He traveled widely, including on a mission to promote Portuguese products at the U.S. Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The following year (1877), he and Hermenegildo Capelo undertook the first of two daring expeditions to explore the interior of Africa between the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique. A second expedition in 1885 succeeded in crossing the continent, a remarkable achievement at the time. As a result, Ivens and Capelo were feted and given multiple awards on their return to Portugal; Ivens was made an aide-de-camp to King Luis I and was nominated as secretary of the Comissão de Cartografia.