How Bad Luck and Bad Networking Cost Douglas Prasher a Nobel Prize (2011)

The most surprising thing is that the whole chain of events seems to have been nobody's intent. From wikipedia:

Chalfie and Tsien invited Prasher and his wife, Virginia Eckenrode, to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony, as their guests and at their expense. All three of the 2008 Chemistry laureates thanked Prasher in their speeches.

In June 2010, Prasher was finally able to return to science, working for Streamline Automation in Huntsville until December 2011, then from 2012 on, in Roger Tsien's lab at the University of California in San Diego.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Prasher)