No matter how strong the intellectual and other psychological predispositions for top scientific achievement and/or a successful scientific career, neither the processes of a general and scientific socialisation nor the socio-cultural or socio-professional environment can be avoided or neglected. Empirical support for the thesis on the impact of the social environment on the formation and the influence of the scientific elite of a country is supported by three analysed research studies: on distinguished Croatian scientists (1995), on the population of Croatian scientists (1990) and on Croatian scientific emigrants (1986).