After completing his undergraduate degree in physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology and earning his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Michigan, Earl was recruited by Georgia Technical Research Institute director James Boyd to return to Georgia Technical as an assistant professor
He received appointments in both the School of Physics and the School of Electrical Engineering. Apart from his work as a physicist, Doctor McDaniel was known to be an avid reader of both fiction and classics as well as an expert on the histories of great military conflicts and battles. In 1964, Earl began construction of a "drift tube" with the help of mechanical engineering student, Dan Albritton.
Using this drift tube the pair revolutionized the field of ion transport.
Their publication "Mobilities of Mass-Identified H3+ and H+ Ions in Hydrogen" was chosen as one of the top 100 papers ever published in the journal Physical Review.
