locating people on the map via chat

Is it possible to locate a specific person on the map using chat, so that clicking their name in chat will also highlight their location on the map?

No, not really.

The best thing to do is to click on their name in the chat window (as if to send them a Whisper message), then copy their name from the chat bar (Ctrl+C) and then paste it into the Party Pane (Ctrl+V), then you'll be able to click on the + to attempt to add them to your party.
At this point the name will become 'locked' to their position in the outpost and you'll be able to click on the name to travel towards the person.

I think what you describe only happens if they accept and are added to the party? Then if you click their red bar in the party window it highlights them on the compass, and if you double click it or click "Trade" you run towards them. Provided they're in compass range, otherwise they appear greyed out in the party window and you can't do either.

nope. once the name is in the party window regardless of whether they accept or not you can click on it and run right to them providing they are in compass range. if not in range you can still click the name and run around until it appears at the top of the screen like it does when you target a foe in an explorable and then just hit spacebar to run right to them

Very useful, thanks, I had no idea it can work like that.

Not really. The closest you can come, using chat, would be the "add to party" method above. Even then, they need to join your party, and they will only show up with a yellow circle around their dot on the compass, and they would need to be within compass range since the compass viewpoint doesn't move.