The principal objective of this study was to determine the organizational sources of support for the scientists and engineers who have received the Nobel and other major scientific prizes. A secondary objective was to determine what role the National Science Foundation (NSF) may have played in the recipients' research careers. The results of the study indicate that nearly three-fifths (58%) of the winners in the last ten years received some financial support from NSF during the period of their prize winning research. Most prize winners who received NSF support consider the Foundation their major source of research funding. Other leading funding sources included Department of Defense agencies (38%), the National Institutes of Health (25%), and the Department of Energy (18%). The analysis includes the funding histories of 440 United States scientists and engineers who won one or more of 55 distinguished prizes between 1977 and 1986. (TW)