His career highlights include winning an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scientific and Engineering Award in 1991 for his work at Walt Disney Studios with the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) team.
Michael Eisner later wrote, "This new technology, Lem argued, had the potential to revolutionize animated movies, both by creating efficiencies and by giving artists a new range of creative capacities that were the equivalent of moving from writing by hand to using a personal computer.
"[2]: 179–180 As a lead architect of the CAPS team, Davis worked as a technical director on Disney's first fully computer-animated short film, Oilspot and Lipstick.
Davis is credited with the concept of the experimental film, in which two junkyard dogs fall in love and are menaced by a monster made of junk.
"[6][7] During Davis's time at Disney, he contributed to the animated films The Black Cauldron (1985) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990) as Digital Production System Developer.