Keith Breckenridge is a Professor and Deputy Director at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research. He writes about the cultural and economic history of South Africa, particularly the gold mining industry, the state and the development of information systems. The award was presented to Prof Keith Breckenridge for his book titled Biometric State: The Global Politics of Identification and Surveillance in South Africa, 1850 to the Present. The book shows how the South African obsession with Francis Galton’s universal fingerprint identity registration served as a 20th century incubator for the current systems of biometric citizenship being developed throughout the South.