Referring to paper from some other school when writing Statement of Purpose for Grad School I am currently working on grad school applications to US Universities. Somewhere in my statement of purpose, I express my interest in working in a certain field. As a reason for that interest, I want to cite a particular paper written by members of the CS Department at the University of Toronto. The problem targeted by that paper was one that I was very interested in (at an abstract level) when I was in high school. Thus I got deeply excited and would like to extend their work.

Is it okay if I mention this paper in my statement of purpose for schools other than the University of Toronto? Could such a reference give the (mistaken) impression that I had written a statement of purpose specifically for the University of Toronto and then didn't bother to make changes for other schools?
If the paper was influential for your development, by all means talk about it and cite it.