Given that the existence of memristors was first predicted by a professor at Berkeley (Leon Chua), yes I am surprised. Surely he had to have heard of them.
Memristors are a pretty niche topic. Until somebody made some, they were an obscure topic in circuit theory. Even now that they exist, they've yet to be commercialized. It makes sense for a practicing EE who may not follow the tech press all that closely to not know about them.
