I am a fourth year PhD student in the Conroy Paleoclimatology and Climate lab working to reconstruct tropical Pacific hydroclimate over the last millennium using lake sediments and climate model output. How has hydroclimate in the tropics changed over the last millennium? How well do climate models simulate these changes? How can we use climate models and proxies together to further our understanding of how the climate system works? I explore the answers to these questions using lipid biomarkers and carbonate isotopes in lake sediments as well as exploring climate model simulations and comparing them to proxy data.