Fermium was discovered by a team of scientists led by Albert Ghiorso in 1952 while studying the radioactive debris produced by the detonation of the first hydrogen bomb. The isotope they discovered, fermium-255, has a half-life of about 20 hours and was produced by combining 17 neutrons with uranium-238, which then underwent eight beta decays. Today, fermium is produced though a lengthy chain of nuclear reactions that involves bombarding each isotope in the chain with neutrons and then allowing the resulting isotope to undergo beta decay.

Fermium's most stable isotope, fermium-257, has a half-life of about 100.5 days. It decays into californium-253 through alpha decay or decays through spontaneous fission.

Due to the small amounts produced and its short half-life, there are currently no uses for fermium outside of basic scientific research.