diff --git a/barkeep_server.rb b/barkeep_server.rb
index d2176e7e..a001fb61 100644
--- a/barkeep_server.rb
+++ b/barkeep_server.rb
@@ -247,6 +247,7 @@ def ensure_required_params(*required_params)
         permission = User.find(:permission => "admin").nil? ? "admin" : "normal"
         User.new(:email => email, :name => email, :permission => permission).save
       end
+      link_author_to_user(email)
       redirect session[:login_started_url] || "/"
     end
   end
@@ -559,6 +560,19 @@ def get_openid_login_redirect(openid_provider_url)
     end
   end
 
+  # If the email matches an entry in both the authors table and the users table, then create
+  # a link between them by updating the "user_id" field in the authors table.
+  def link_author_to_user(email)
+    author = Author.first(:email => email)
+    if author && author.user_id.nil?
+      user = User.first(:email => email)
+      if user
+        author.user_id = user.id
+        author.save
+      end
+    end
+  end
+
   def create_comment(repo_name, sha, filename, line_number_string, text)
     commit = MetaRepo.instance.db_commit(repo_name, sha)
     raise "No such commit." unless commit
diff --git a/lib/models.rb b/lib/models.rb
index 09adbc3c..52b8c35e 100644
--- a/lib/models.rb
+++ b/lib/models.rb
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 # Auto-populate "created_at" and "updated_at" fields.
 Sequel::Model.plugin :timestamps
 
+require "models/author"
 require "models/git_repo"
 require "models/git_branch"
 require "models/user"
diff --git a/migrations/20130116081012_populate_authors_table.rb b/migrations/20130116081012_populate_authors_table.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b8584a83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/migrations/20130116081012_populate_authors_table.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+require "bundler/setup"
+require "pathological"
+require "migrations/migration_helper.rb"
+require "grit"
+
+# This migration populates the "authors" table by fetching all the commits from all the repos
+# and storing the unique commit authors in the "authors" table. If it finds an identical email
+# address in the "users" table then it also adds the "user_id" to the authors table entry.
+
+# This is the number of commits that we fetch at a time.
+PAGE_SIZE = 100
+
+Sequel.migration do
+  up do
+    repos = DB[:git_repos].all
+
+    # Find all the unique authors
+    authors = Hash.new { |hash, key| hash[key] = {} }
+    repos.each do |repo|
+      grit_repo = Grit::Repo.new(repo[:path])
+      total = 0
+      num = 0
+      begin
+        commits = grit_repo.commits("master", PAGE_SIZE, total)
+        commits.each { |commit| authors[commit.author.email][:name] = commit.author.name }
+        num = commits.length
+        total += num
+      end while num == PAGE_SIZE
+      puts "Processed #{total} commits from repo #{repo[:path]}."
+    end
+
+    # Find matching users (by email) in the "users" table.
+    authors.keys.each do |email|
+      user = DB[:users].first(:email => email)
+      authors[email][:user_id] = user[:id] if user
+    end
+    puts "Found #{authors.length} unique authors."
+
+    # Fill in the "authors" table.
+    num_inserts = 0
+    authors.each do |key, value|
+      row = DB[:authors].first(:email => key)
+      next if row
+      DB[:authors].insert(:email => key, :name => value[:name], :user_id => value[:user_id])
+      num_inserts += 1
+    end
+    puts "Inserted #{num_inserts} new authors."
+  end
+
+  # We don't need to remove the author entries.
+  down do
+  end
+end
diff --git a/migrations/20130116151408_add_author_id_to_commits.rb b/migrations/20130116151408_add_author_id_to_commits.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..263f1730
--- /dev/null
+++ b/migrations/20130116151408_add_author_id_to_commits.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+require "bundler/setup"
+require "pathological"
+require "migrations/migration_helper.rb"
+
+Sequel.migration do
+  change do
+    alter_table :commits do
+      add_foreign_key :author_id, :authors, :key => :id
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/migrations/20130116152425_populate_author_id_field.rb b/migrations/20130116152425_populate_author_id_field.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..35800f4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/migrations/20130116152425_populate_author_id_field.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+require "bundler/setup"
+require "pathological"
+require "migrations/migration_helper.rb"
+require "grit"
+
+# This migration populates the "author_id" field in the "commits" table.
+
+Sequel.migration do
+  up do
+    # Fetch all the authors (expected to be small, say less than 1000) so that we don't have to do
+    # an extra SQL query for every commit to check if the author email exists. Then create a mapping
+    # from email -> author.id
+    rows = DB[:authors].all
+    authors = {}
+    rows.each do |row|
+      authors[row[:email]] = row[:id]
+    end
+
+    # Fetch all the git repos (also small, less than 100) and create a mapping from
+    # git_repo_id -> Grit::Repo
+    repos = {}
+    DB[:git_repos].each { |row| repos[row[:id]] = Grit::Repo.new(row[:path]) }
+
+    total_updates = 0
+    new_authors = 0
+    commits = DB[:commits].filter(:author_id => nil).all
+    commits.each do |row|
+      commit = repos[row[:git_repo_id]].commit(row[:sha])
+      next unless commit
+      email = commit.author.email
+      author_id = authors[email]
+      # If the author is not in our db, then add it.
+      if author_id.nil?
+        # Check if the same email exists in the users table.
+        user = DB[:users].first(:email => email)
+        user_id = user[:id] if user
+        DB[:authors].insert(:email => email, :name => commit.author.name, :user_id => user_id)
+
+        # Get the author_id and add it to the hash.
+        author = DB[:authors].first(:email => email)
+        author_id = author[:id]
+        authors[email] = author_id
+        new_authors += 1
+      end
+      total_updates += 1
+      DB[:commits].filter(:id => row[:id]).update(:author_id => authors[email])
+    end
+    puts "New authors: #{new_authors}"
+    puts "Updated commits: #{total_updates}"
+  end
+
+  # We don't need to undo this.
+  down do
+  end
+end
diff --git a/models/author.rb b/models/author.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2af9e257
--- /dev/null
+++ b/models/author.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+class Author < Sequel::Model
+  # This is really one_to_one, but Sequel requires the table containing the foreign key to be many_to_one.
+  many_to_one :user
+  one_to_one :commit
+end
diff --git a/models/commit.rb b/models/commit.rb
index a50da71e..de9dbc32 100644
--- a/models/commit.rb
+++ b/models/commit.rb
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ class Commit < Sequel::Model
   one_to_many :comments
   many_to_one :approved_by_user, :class => User
 
+  # This is really one_to_one, but Sequel requires the table containing the foreign key to be many_to_one.
+  many_to_one :author
+
   add_association_dependencies :comments => :destroy, :commit_files => :destroy
 
   add_filter(:message) { |message| StringFilter.escape_html(message) }
diff --git a/models/user.rb b/models/user.rb
index 37ae46e6..6ade5607 100644
--- a/models/user.rb
+++ b/models/user.rb
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 class User < Sequel::Model
   one_to_many :saved_searches, :order => [:user_order.desc]
   one_to_many :comments
+  one_to_one :author
 
   ONE_YEAR = 365
 
diff --git a/resque_jobs/db_commit_ingest.rb b/resque_jobs/db_commit_ingest.rb
index 5186645b..afcdf87c 100644
--- a/resque_jobs/db_commit_ingest.rb
+++ b/resque_jobs/db_commit_ingest.rb
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ def self.perform(repo_name, remote_name)
 
       page_of_rows_to_insert = commits.map do |commit|
         next if existing_shas.include?(commit.sha)
+        author_id = insert_author_if_new(commit)
 
         {
           :git_repo_id => db_repo.id,
@@ -52,6 +53,7 @@ def self.perform(repo_name, remote_name)
           # NOTE(caleb): For some reason, the commit object you get from a remote returns nil for #date (but
           # it does have #authored_date and #committed_date. Bug?
           :date => commit.authored_date,
+          :author_id => author_id,
         }
       end
       page_of_rows_to_insert.compact!
@@ -78,4 +80,18 @@ def self.perform(repo_name, remote_name)
       Resque.enqueue(GenerateTaggedDiffs, repo_name, row[:sha])
     end
   end
+
+  # Given a new commit, insert the author into the authors table if the author does not exist.
+  # In any case, returns the author id.
+  def self.insert_author_if_new(commit)
+    email = commit.author.email
+    author = Author.first(:email => email)
+    return author.id if author
+
+    user = User.first(:email => email)
+    user_id = user.id if user
+    Author.insert(:email => email, :name => commit.author.name, :user_id => user_id)
+    author = Author.first(:email => email)
+    author.id
+  end
 end