diff --git a/app/helpers/projects_helper.rb b/app/helpers/projects_helper.rb
index a0220af4c30c75cab155583eac8ee7fe8c983b26..6dc2c381c291e2c52ca3c7effecbe2867a4fcae6 100644
--- a/app/helpers/projects_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/projects_helper.rb
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ module ProjectsHelper
     author_html =  ""
 
     # Build avatar image tag
-    author_html << image_tag(avatar_icon(author.try(:email), opts[:size]), width: opts[:size], class: "avatar avatar-inline #{"s#{opts[:size]}" if opts[:size]}", alt:'') if opts[:avatar]
+    author_html << image_tag(avatar_icon(author, opts[:size]), width: opts[:size], class: "avatar avatar-inline #{"s#{opts[:size]}" if opts[:size]}", alt:'') if opts[:avatar]
 
     # Build name span tag
     author_html << content_tag(:span, sanitize(author.name), class: opts[:author_class]) if opts[:name]
diff --git a/spec/helpers/projects_helper_spec.rb b/spec/helpers/projects_helper_spec.rb
index 53e56ebff44bd34cb8fc9e23bca8930f449fd49d..f2efb528aeb6cc1c9397e7a5c9a8676286f4085d 100644
--- a/spec/helpers/projects_helper_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/helpers/projects_helper_spec.rb
@@ -70,4 +70,18 @@ describe ProjectsHelper do
       expect(helper.send(:readme_cache_key)).to eq("#{project.path_with_namespace}-nil-readme")
     end
   end
+
+  describe 'link_to_member' do
+    let(:group)   { create(:group) }
+    let(:project) { create(:empty_project, group: group) }
+    let(:user)    { create(:user) }
+
+    describe 'using the default options' do
+      it 'returns an HTML link to the user' do
+        link = helper.link_to_member(project, user)
+
+        expect(link).to match(%r{/u/#{user.username}})
+      end
+    end
+  end
 end