Abstract: Scientific and technological talents are the key force for a country to achieve technological self-reliance, self-improvement, and accelerate technological progress. Using 1198 outstanding young scientists and scholars from 2013 to 2015 as research subjects, we characterize the growth of top-notch scientific and technological talents by using the growth of outstanding young scientists and scholars as a natural experiment. The growth of top-notch scientific and technological talents is divided into two dimensions: whether they can grow into top-notch talents and the speed of their growth. Based on three characteristics of scientific research output, namely quantity, impact, and comprehensive performance, the relationship between the characteristics of scientific research output and the growth of top-notch scientific and technological talents was studied using binary Logit model and two-sided truncated regression model. The study found that: (1) The three features of scientific research output have a significant positive impact on whether one can grow into a top-notch scientific and technological talent; (2) Only the impact feature of scientific research output has a significant impact on the speed of growth of top-notch scientific and technological talents; (3) Outstanding young scientists and scholars from non-university institutions are more likely to grow into outstanding young scientists and scholars compared to those from universities, and their contributions to the growth of scientific research output features are higher; (4) For the research sample from the western region, the features of scientific research output have no significant impact on the growth of top-notch scientific and technological talents. This study reveals the specific mechanism by which the features of scientific research output affect the growth of top-notch scientific and technological talents, enriches the relevant research on the growth rules of technology talents.