Mr Ahmadinejad was invited to Columbia University to address its students at the university's World Leaders Forum.
He received a hostile welcome from Mr Bollinger, who described the Iranian leader as "a petty and cruel dictator".
"You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated," Mr Bollinger told Mr Ahmadinejad, referring to his denial of the Holocaust.
In response, Mr Ahmadinejad said that Mr Bollinger's remarks were "an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience".
Addressing the Holocaust issue, Mr Ahmadinejad said he simply wanted more research to be done.
He also said the issue was abused by Israel to justify what he said was its mistreatment of the Palestinians.
"Why is it that the Palestinian people are paying the price for an event they had nothing to do with?" Mr Ahmadinejad asked.
Its very sad to see two countries (or cultures) fighting like this. First, Bollinger and Ahmadinejad are speaking of different contexts. Former of the past, that the Jews suffered the most and should be pitied. The latter speaks of now, that palestinians suffered under Jewish rule and should be pitied. Picking the subject of Jews or Palestinian without picking the time makes the debate impossible.
Second, Bollinger looks like a 'little' man. While righteous, totally missed the big picture. Every country has its laws and tolerance and all should respect each other. Without respect, wars such as Iraq invasion happens. But these days, as in the past, guns speak louder than words. On the other hand, Ahmadinejad answered like a gentleman.
Frankly, Iran were enemies of US and media is US's weapon of mass destruction. One wonders why is there no report of Iraqi life in Iraq or Palestinian's situation in west bank? All bombs were dropped on it enemies so precisely destructive.
In all, both sides can be faulted on some degree. But the weight is clearly all loaded on one.
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