Prof. Avner Ben-Zaken is a pioneering historian of science specializing in cross-cultural history. Challenging traditional views of linear scientific development in European centers, he emphasizes cultural "margins"—zones of intercultural exchange. His micro-historical research tracks scientific texts and objects to prove modern science emerged from Mediterranean networks linking East and West. Ben-Zaken analyzes science as a material and visual culture, earning the prestigious international Nathan Reingold Prize. Notably, he discovered a rare copy of Cornelius Agrippa’s "De Vanitate Scientiarum" bearing William Shakespeare’s presumed signature, demonstrating perfectly how Agrippa's radical synthesis of science, magic, and early feminism shaped early modern Western thought.