Lawrencium was created by four American scientists, Albert Ghiorso, Torbjørn Sikkeland, Almon E. Larsh and Robert M. Latimer, in March, 1961. Working at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California, the scientists placed three micrograms (0.000003 grams) of californium in the target chamber of a device called a linear accelerator. The scientists used the accelerator to bombard the californium with boron ions. Several different isotopes of lawrencium were created and there is some confusion as to which isotope the group actually detected. Today, the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory is known as the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Lawrencium's most stable isotope, lawrencium-262, has a half-life of 3.6 hours. It decays into nobelium-256 through electron capture or decays through spontaneous fission.

Since only tiny amounts of lawrencium have ever been produced, there are currently no uses for it outside of basic scientific research.