Dubnium is a metal in Group VB and the 7th period. It is a synthetic element; none occurs naturally on earth.

The element was discovered by Ghiorso, Nurmia, Harris, K.A.Y. Eskola, and P.L. Eskola in 1970 at the University of California - Berkeley. It was named for the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna, Russia.

Db is synthetic, just as all other elements beyond U. It was first made by bombarding ²⁴⁹Cf with a beam of 84 MeV Nitrogen nuclei.

²⁶²Db has a half-life of 1.8 seconds (as an alpha emitter).

Little is known about the chemistry of Dubnium. It is expected to have properties similar to Tantalum.