How to auto-fill a User field for a record that has the corresponding name and email for that user?

I have a Master table that pulls data from SAP and brings along with it the name of the analyst responsible for that record. I can also bring in the email if needed. I would like to send notifications and reminders to the analysts and so would like to automatically assign the record to that analyst using a user field. How do I do that? All analysts will be 'users' of this app.