It depends by what you mean with "perform a reaction".
If you mean doing a synthesis by following written instruction, than just the most basic chemical education will do. Actually you could perform such simple reactions even without any formal education (assumed that you get familiar with the terminology used in the synthesis instruction).
If by "perform a reaction" you mean to plan an unknown and unchecked synthesis, then its a little more demanding as it actually requires the chemist to use his brains and knowledge. But the mechanism of the Michael and Mannich reactions are not very hard to understand. Neither are the other chemical concepts needed for such an endeavor (stochiometry, nucleophyle/electrophyle, additions, acid/base...). However, you surely don't need a PhD for that. These are thought in universities (a Bachelor's degree is more than enough even for a lousy chemist to understand these reactions).
So what educational level are you gonna give to your hero?
Keep also in mind that most chemists with PhD are only careerists who are very narrow minded and don't know much about any chemistry that is out of their field (and they surely know shit about pharmacology in 97% of cases).
