Scientists working at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, first reported the production of dubnium in 1967. They bombarded atoms of americium-243 with ions of neon-22, forming atoms of dubnium-260 and five free neutrons and atoms of dubnium-261 and four free neutrons. In 1970, a group of scientists working at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, now known as the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, in Berkeley, California, bombarded atoms of californium-249 with ions of nitrogen-15, forming atoms of dubnium-260 and 4 free neutrons. Credit for the discovery of dubnium is still under debate.

Dubnium's most stable isotope, dubnium-268, has a half-life of about 16 hours. It decays into lawrencium-254 through alpha decay, into rutherfordium-268 through electron capture or decays through spontaneous fission.

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