Curium was first produced by Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James and Albert Ghiorso, working at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1944. They bombarded atoms of plutonium-239, an isotope of plutonium, with alpha particles that had been accelerated in a device called a cyclotron. This produced atoms of curium-242 and one free neutron. Curium-242 has a half-life of about 163 days and decays into plutonium-238 through alpha decay or decays through spontaneous fission.

Curium's most stable isotope, curium-247, has a half-life of about 15,600,000 years. It decays into plutonium-243 through alpha decay.

Since only milligram amounts of curium have ever been produced, there are currently no commercial applications for it, although it might be used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators in the future. Curium is primarily used for basic scientific research.

Scientists have produced several curium compounds. They include: curium dioxide (CmO₂), curium trioxide (Cm₂O₃), curium bromide (CmBr₃), curium chloride (CmCl₃), curium chloride (CmCl₃), curium tetrafluoride (CmF₄) and curium iodide (CmI₃). As with the element, the compounds currently have no commercial applications and are primarily used for basic scientific research.