[_gmax0]

1. Browse through major findings in USENIX security conferences and make note of major authors and their affiliations.

2. Think about what challenges are generally faced in the field in whatever capacity you're interested in (network security, hardware security, etc.) and what organizations (public/private/solo hacker groups) are actively working towards addressing these challenges.

3. Do some work, reach out to people, ask some questions, assert your solutions.

[helloooooooo]

USENIX? Lmao. Nothing of note happens there. Hilariously enough, nothing significant happens at BH or DEFCON either. There are other, much smaller conferences for the actual interesting, and novel things.

[_gmax0]

Any exemplars that come to mind?

I wouldn't be surprised as other posters have opined (and likely accurately) that industry/hacker groups have progressed past academia.

[nbk_2000]

REcon [1] would probably get OP in closer proximity of who they're looking for

[1]: https://recon.cx