Alexander Adu Clerk

Alexander Adu Clerk, (born 13 May 1947) is a Ghanaian American academic, psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist who was the Director of the world's first sleep medical clinic, the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine from 1990 to 1998. Clerk is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. His mother was Dorothy Esi Mensima Clerk, née Holdbrook, of Cape Coast and Ga Mashie. His paternal grandfather, Charles Emmanuel Clerk (died 14 November 1938) worked in the Gold Coast Civil Service as an interpreter and Secretary to the Governor, and earlier, he was a newspaper publisher in Nigeria. Alexander A. Clerk is a fourth generation descendant of the historically important Clerk family. He is a great-grandson of Alexander Worthy Clerk, a Jamaican Moravian missionary who arrived in the Danish Protectorate of Christiansborg (now the suburb of Osu) in 1843, as part of the original group of 24 West Indian missionaries who worked under the auspices of the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society of Basel, Switzerland. His great-grandaunt was Regina Hesse (1832 –1898), a pioneer educator and school principal who worked with the Basel Mission on the Gold Coast. Another uncle, Theodore S. Clerk (1909 – 1965) was the first Ghanaian architect who planned and developed the harbour metropolis, Tema. A. A. Clerk's aunts were Jane E. Clerk (1904 – 1999), a woman pioneer in education administration and Matilda J. Clerk (1916 – 1984), the second Ghanaian woman to become a physician.

His cousin, Nicholas T. Clerk (1930 – 2012), served as the Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), the vice-chairman of the Public Services Commission of Ghana and the Chairman of the Public Services Commission of Uganda from 1989 to 1990. Another cousin, George C. Clerk (1931–2019) was a pioneering botanist. Pauline M. Clerk (1935 - 2013), a diplomat and presidential advisor, was also his cousin.

Education and training A. A. Clerk had his early education at Presbyterian and Seventh-day Adventist schools in Osu and Bekwai in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions respectively. the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine from 1990 to 1998 where he was responsible for clinical operations, sleep research and supervised training of other medical specialists. He served as the Director of Sleep Medicine Services, an affiliate of the O'Connor Health Center based in San Jose, California. His siblings are the late Major (retired) A. N. Clerk, a military officer; Patrick A. Clerk, a dentist; James S. Clerk, an artist educator and Ellen, a nurse.

Alexander Clerk is the President of the Valley View University Foundation, established to promote academic excellence and scholarship at the Valley View University located in Oyibi, on the Dodowa-Nsawam Road In Ghana. A residential hall at the Valley View University is named Clerk Hall in honour of his family. Clerk also served as the President of the Pacific Ghanaian Adventist Fellowship (PaGAF).

Selected works Abstracts Guilleminault, C.; Stoohs, R.; Maistros, P.; Clerk A. (1991) “Idiopathic hypersomnia revisited; the unknown upper airway resistance syndrome.” Sleep Research: 20: 251 Valencia-Flores M.; Bliwise, D.; Guilleminault, C.; Rhodes, N.; Clerk A. (1992) “Gender differences in sleep architecture in apnea syndrome.” Sleep Research: 21: 271 Dantz, B.; Edgar, E.M.; Clerk, A.; Keenan, S.; Seidel W.F.; Dement, W.C. (1992) “Narcoleptics on a 90 minute day: Circadian variations in sleep latencies and tympanic temperature.” Sleep Research: 21: 369 Clerk, A; Duncan, S.; Guilleminault, C. (1992), “Resistance perception during wakefulness in subjects with partial or complete upper airway obstruction during sleep.” Sleep Research: 21: 186

Book chapters Christian Guilleminault, Riccardo Stoohs, Alex Clerk, Mindy Cetel, Paul Maistros (1993). “The Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome, Sleep Apnea and Rhonchopathy.” Togawa K, Katayama S, Hisihikawa Y, Ohta Y, Horie T (eds.): Basel: Karger, pp. 62–65 Alex Clerk, Vincent Zarcone. (1996) “Impotence: Sleep Clinic Assessment. Treating Sexual Disorders.” Randolph S. Charltoon (ed): Publisher Jossey Bass, San Francisco, CA, Chapter 4, pp. 123–125